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THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


AND  THE  PART  PLAYED  BY  ORGANIZED  MEDICINE 


THE 

EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

AND  THE  PART  PLAYED  BY  ORGANIZED  MEDICINE 


by 


CHARLES  TABER  STOUT 


NEW  YORK 

MITCHELL  KENNERLEY 
MCMXXI 


COPYRIGHT  1921  BY 
MITCHELL  KENNERLEY 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


PREFACE 


/ 


/ 


The  first  pages  of  this  book  were  included  in  a 
paper  written  as  a protest  against  the  candidacy  of 
a regular  Army  officer  who  was  seeking  the  nom- 
ination of  one  of  the  great  parties  for  the  office  of 
President  of  the  United  States.  This  general  officer 
had  entered  the  Army  through  the  medical  branch 
of  the  service  and  still  maintained  his  membership 
in  the  medical  organization,  which  expected  to  avail 
itself  of  his  Administration  (if  that  ever  became  a 
reality)  to  push  its  special  legislative  programme. 
Ten  days  after  the  protest  referred  to  reached  its 
destination,  together  with  the  protests  of  others, 
an  inquiry  as  to  the  source  of  the  candidate’s  cam- 
paign fund  was  begun  In  the  Senate.  That  Investi- 
gation ended  his  presidential  aspirations. 

With  this  Inception,  the  book  has  been  continued 
; and  completed  in  order  to  draw  public  attention  to 
' a question  of  national  concern — the  real  meaning  of 
the  prohibition  movement,  and  Its  relations  to  Or- 
I ganized  Medicine  and  other  Interests.  Under  the 
; guise  of  altruism,  a grave  Injustice  has  been  Imposed 
upon  a free  people  by  a relatively  small  number  of 
zealots  and  profiteers.  It  seems  Important,  there- 
fore, that  the  public  should  know  the  facts. 

C.  T.  S. 


INTRODUCTION 


Like  many  others,  I used  to  look  upon  prohibition 
as  a dream  of  the  idealist.  It  was  a dream  with 
which  I was  not  particularly  concerned.  My  ideas 
on  the  whole  subject  were  rather  vague,  like  the  ideas 
of  most  people  on  most  subjects  of  importance;  but 
I believed  in  a general  way  that  the  removal  of  in- 
toxicating liquors  from  ordinary  use  would  be  a good 
thing  for  the  country.  The  harm  w'hich  alcohol  had 
done  and  was  doing  was  quite  obvious.  Like  others, 
I had  seen  lives  ruined  by  over-indulgence  and  homes 
broken  up.  I had  drawn  what  seemed  natural  con- 
clusions from  casual  observation  and  reflection.  But 
when  I began  to  give  the  question  serious  considera- 
tion, I had  to  admit  that  I really  knew  nothing  about 
prohibition,  good  or  bad.  I had  certain  impres- 
sions, which  might  be  justifiable  or  otherwise.  That 
was  all;  and  it  was  not  enough. 

I began  to  read  some  of  the  literature  on  the 
subject.  One  of  the  first  books  which  came  to  my 
attention  was  Dr.  Eugene  Lyman  Fisk’s  “Alcohol 
— Its  Relation  to  Human  Efficiency  and  Longevity.” 
Many  of  his  statements  conflicted  with  the  opinions 

vii 


INTRODUCTION 


viii 

I had  formed  in  the  loose  way  just  described.  The 
book,  however,  was  persuasive,  and  I read  it  through 
a second  time.  After  this  second  perusal  I became  j 
skeptical;  and  I then  read  it  once  more,  critically,  i 
checking  up  the  various  statements,  with  the  result 
that  I had  to  discard  many  of  them  as  worthless,  j 
I do  not  mean  to  question  Dr.  Fisk’s  sincerity,  of 
course;  but  apparently,  as  in  the  case  of  so  many 
of  our  scientists,  his  field  of  observation  has  been  i 
distinctly  limited.  The  impression  which  I received 
from  the  book  was  that  if  the  prohibitionists  were 
obliged  to  resort  to  propaganda  such  as  this,  there 
must  be  something  wrong  with  their  cause. 

I went  over  the  matter  with  others.  They  became 
interested,  and  we  traced  some  of  the  propaganda 
down  to  its  sources.  What  had  been  at  first  merely 
curious  inquiry  soon  developed  into  an  absorbing 
study,  not  only  of  the  theories  of  the  prohibitionists, 
but  also  of  the  forces  behind  the  movement.  The 
moral  plea  on  which  prohibition  was  originally  put 
forward  had  now  been  subordinated  to  the  question 
of  health.  The  American  Medical  Association  had 
joined  the  ranks  of  the  anti-alcoholists  and  had 
passed  a resolution  condemning  alcohol  both  as  a 
food  and  a medicine.  We  followed  the  activities 
of  the  association  through  its  various  channels  of 
influence.  The  trail  led  from  one  of  the  great  medi- 
cal institutions  to  another,  until  it  finally  brought  up 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

I in  the  medical  departments  of  the  national  gov- 
j ernment. 

The  aged  fisherman  of  the  Arabian  Nights  could 
j not  have  been  more  astonished  when  he  removed  the 
! seal  of  Solomon  from  the  mouth  of  the  jar  which  his 
net  had  brought  to  the  surface,  and  saw  the  genie 
issue  forth,  than  we  were  at  the  result  of  our  in- 
vestigations. We  found  a giant  organization  oc- 
cupying the  centre  of  the  stage.  Torn  by  factions 
within,  pressed  on  all  sides  by  virile  foes  without, 
i it  was  turning  and  twisting,  grasping  at  any  weapon 
which  would  preserve  its  life  for  even  a short  time 
I longer.  It  was  medievalism  struggling  against  the 
j advance  of  civilization.  We  found,  Indeed,  more 
j than  the  power  behind  prohibition  itself;  we  found 
I the  reason  why  disease  has  been  able  to  flourish  in 
i|  spite  of  all  that  science  has  accomplished  for  its 
j|;  control.  We  found  men  of  international  reputation 
: jn  the. world  of  medicine  prostituting  their  profes- 
sion, and  forgetting  their  personal  honor,  to  main- 
tain an  organization  which  has  long  outlived  its 
usefulness  and  which  has  no  place  in  a civilized 
community  In  a modern  age. 

There  is  but  one  excuse  for  prohibition,  and  that 
Is  Ignorance.  Is  the  ignorance  displayed  by  our 
medical  authorities  on  the  subject  of  alcohol  real 
or  assumed?  Do  they  sincerely  believe,  or  merely 
pretend  to  believe,  that  prohibition  will  mean  an 


X 


INTRODUCTION 


improvement  in  the  health  of  the  people?  The 
question  is  on  a par  with  another  one  which  has 
been  asked  rather  frequently:  Did  the  Inquisitors 
of  the  Middle  Ages  believe  that  the  rack  and  the 
fagot  would  advance  the  cause  of  truth,  or  did  a 
certain  proportion  of  them,  at  least,  employ  these 
unpleasant  arguments  mainly  to  further  their  own 
interests  and  protect  their  special  organization? 

Some  light  on  the  first  question,  at  any  rate,  should 
be  found  in  the  ensuing  pages. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

INTRODUCTION  vii 

I THE  ISSUE  9 

II  THE  MORAL  PLEA  FAILS  13 

III  THE  HEALTH  PLEA  17 

^ IV  ORGANIZED  MEDICINE  22 

V THE  SERUM  CONTROVERSY  30 

VI  A NEW  FACTOR  35 

VII  THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  CHEMOTHERAPY  41 

VIII  A PROFITABLE  PARTNERSHIP  46 

- IX  THE  OTHER  PARTNERS  50 

y X SOME  PROHIBITION  PROPAGANDA  59 

XI  ALCOHOL  AND  LONGEVITY  69 

XII  MORE  FALLACIOUS  PROPAGANDA  75 

XIII  THE  LABORATORY  vs.  NATURE  84 

XIV  THE  FOOD  VALUE  OF  ALCOHOL  97 

XV  ALCOHOL  AS  A MEDICINE  104 

XVI  ALCOHOL  AND  FATIGUE  113 

XVII  FATIGUE  AND  DISEASE  123 

XVIII  THE  ECONOMIC  SIDE  OF  PROHIBITION  130 

XIX  THE  LAW  AND  PERSONAL  LIBERTY  149 

XX  THE  LABOR  UNION  159 

XXI  ENFORCEMENT  167 

XXII  GOVERNMENT  BY  PROPAGANDA?  187 

XXIII  THE  WAY  OUT  192 

XXIV  CONCLUSION  206 

INDEX  213 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


AND  THE  PART  PLAYED  BY  ORGANIZED  MEDICINE 


For  John  the  Baptist  came  neither  eating 
bread  nor  drinking  wine;  and  ye  say.  He  hath 
a devil. 

The  Son  of  Man  is  come  eating  and  drink- 
ing; and  ye  say.  Behold  a gluttonous  man, 
and  a winebibber , a friend  of  publicans  and 


sinners. 


St.  Luke,  vii:  33,  34. 


THE 

EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  ISSUE 

America  has  embarked  upon  a great  experiment, 
the  elimination  of  alcoholic  beverages  from  her  na- 
tional diet.  The  fact  that  wine  has  had  its  recog- 
nized place  in  the  human  economy  from  time  im- 
memorial seemed  a matter  of  small  consequence  to 
i the  theorists  who  championed  the  prohibition  move- 
I ment.  There  were  certain  manifest  evils  con- 
nected with  alcohol,  therefore  alcohol  must  go. 

I And  alcohol  has  gone,  to  a large  extent.  True,  it 
I still  lingers  in  the  homes  of  the  rich  and  the  provi- 
I dent;  poisonous  substitutes  are  being  purveyed  at 
fantastic  prices  by  bootleggers,  saloon  keepers  and 
I other  profiteers ; and  the  home-brewer  is  warming  to 
’ his  work  and  gradually  learning  the  secrets  of  suc- 
cess. But  the  old  order  has  certainly  changed, 
i yielding  place  to  new.  Is  the  new,  however,  better 
i than  the  old,  or  is  it  fundamentally  vicious? 

: 9 


10  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


Whenever  we  interfere  with  natural  laws  or  es- 
tablished custom,  trouble  is  to  be  expected;  and 
whether  expected  or  not,  it  will  come.  It  is  safer 
to  build  our  houses,  and  even  our  ultra-modern 
skyscrapers,  from  the  foundation  upward  rather  ' 
than  from  the  skyline  downward;  or  the  downward  I 
will  be  very  clearly  accentuated.  But  in  these  days  j 
of  unrest,  “try  anything  once”  seems  to  have  become 
the  maxim  of  the  advanced  thinkers  who  would  guide 
mankind  to  the  great  visionary  higher  level. 

There  has  never  been  a time  in  the  history  of  the  j 
world  when  the  theorist  was  more  in  evidence.  The 
wonderful  progress  seen  everywhere  in  the  arts  and 
sciences  during  the  present  generation  has  encour- 
aged theoretical  speculation.  The  hypotheses  of 
yesterday  are  the  inventions  and  discoveries  of  to- 
day, by  which  the  earth,  the  sea,  the  air  have  been 
brought  under  man’s  dominion.  Success  has  bred 
a carelessness,  even  a contempt,  for  nature’s  laws, 
until  we  now  find  those  who  are  willing  to  believe 
that  the  very  laws  of  life  itself  can  be  disregarded. 
At  the  risk  of  platitude,  it  is  just  as  well  to  state  a 
simple  truism;  It  is  not  by  ignoring  natural  laws  - 
that  man  has  triumphed,  but  by  understanding  them;  , 
not  by  denying,  but  by  observing  them. 

The  shallow  theorist,  the  bigot  or  the  misguided 
moralist  may  become  a source  of  serious  danger  to 
a community.  There  is  no  more  perilous  element 


THE  ISSUE 


II 


in  society  than  the  fanatics  who  really  believe  in 
their  fallacies,  unless  it  be  those  who  are  willing 
to  exploit  their  false  doctrines  for  profit.  “Uplift” 
is  being  used  more  and  more  frequently  to  disguise 
personal  interest.  It  is  time  that  people  should  be- 
gin to  think  for  themselves,  for  they  are  being  ex- 
ploited in  a way  which  has  become  a menace  to  popu- 
lar government.  With  the  spread  of  education,  or 
rather  the  ability  to  read  and  write,  the  dissemina- 
tion of  false  doctrines  has  become  increasingly  easy. 
The  prohibition  movement  offers  one  of  the  most 
conspicuous  examples. 

The  fate  of  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  in  the 
Supreme  Court  cannot  be  allowed  to  end  the  contro- 
versy. There  is  more  than  a legal  principle  in- 
volved: there  is  the  vital  question  whether  a nation 
can  defy  the  laws  of  nature  and  still  maintain  its 
economic  position.  And  with  this  there  are  the  con- 
nected issues,  the  health,  happiness  and  freedom  of 
action  of  the  American  people. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Supreme  Court 
can  only  pass  upon  a case  as  presented.  Unfortu- 
nately the  real  issue,  the  interest  of  the  public  in 
(and  so  intimately  depending  upon)  the  question, 
has  never  had  a hearing.  It  has  been  a character- 
istic feature  of  the  prohibition  propaganda  to  pre- 
sent the  controversy  in  a misleading  aspect,  and  to 
make  it  appear  a conflict  between  temperance  on 


12  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


the  one  side  and  the  liquor  interests  on  the  other. 
A careful  consideration  of  the  subject  from  the  eco- 
nomic standpoint  is  not  desired.  Any  attempt  to 
turn  on  the  light  has  been  met  by  the  Anti-Saloon 
League — the  stalking  horse  of  the  real  interests  be- 
hind the  movement — by  raising  the  bugaboo  of  the 
liquor  trade.  The  liquor  traffic  as  it  once  was,  and 
the  true  and  continuing  relation  of  alcohol  to  the 
human  system,  are  two  very  different  things. 

The  public’s  interest  in  the  case  can  be  simply 
stated,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  court — except 
the  final  court  of  appeal  of  the  whole  people — has 
the  power,  or  is  competent,  to  pass  on  the  question : 
Is  alcohol  necessary  either  as  a food  or  a medicine 
for  our  individual  or  national  well-being? 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  MORAL  PLEA  FAILS 

There  are  two  aspects  from  which  prohibition 
may  be  considered : the  physical  side,  its  effect  on  the 
health  of  the  nation,  or  as  Dr.  Fisk  phrases  it,  “Its 
relation  to  human  efficiency  and  longevity”;  and 
the  ethical  side,  its  influence  on  national  morals. 
After  all,  our  morals  are  in  a way  but  a higher  sani- 
tary code,  for  we  have  been  put  on  this  earth  pre- 
sumably to  do  appropriate  work — God’s  work,  In 
no  canting  sense — and  moral  guidance  is  to  the  end 
that  we  shall  be  fit  in  mind  and  body  to  carry  on 
this  work  and  assist  our  neighbors  in  the  perform- 
ance of  their  share,  to  the  mutual  welfare  of  all. 

The  morals,  as  commonly  understood,  of  the 
Western  nations  are  rooted  in  the  law  of  Moses 
and  the  teachings  of  Christ.  The  miracles,  sacra- 
ments and  revelations  of  the  Christian  and  Jewish 
religions  alike  are  opposed  to  prohibition.  It  is 
difficult  to  see  how  any  moral  ground  can  be  as- 
serted for  this  fetich  unless  we  are  ready  to  dis- 
card the  clear  guidance  of  both  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments.  Nothing  could  be  plainer  than  Christ’s 
acceptance  of  wine  in  the  institution  of  the  Blessed 

13 


14  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

Sacrament,  the  miracle  at  Cana  of  Galilee,  and  his 
teaching  in  the  city  called  Nain.  The  Christian  re- 
ligion preaches  temperance,  not  prohibition.  There 
is  no  Christian  virtue,  nor  any  other  kind  of  virtue, 
in  a self-denial  that  is  enforced  by  a prison  cell  or 
moral  straitjacket.  If  the  Church  had  had  the 
disposal  of  the  immense  sum  by  which  prohibition 
was  purchased,  were  there  not  vital  purposes  in  ac- 
cordance (not  at  variance)  with  Christ’s  teaching, 
for  which  the  money  could  have  been  well  spent?  Is 
total  abstinence  so  paramount  that  the  Church  is 
willing  to  subordinate  everything  else  for  this  one 
aim, — or  are  we  now  practising  evangelism  inten- 
sively, virtue  by  virtue? 

The  law  of  Moses  is  accepted  by  both  the  Chris- 
tian and  the  Jew  as  essentially  the  revelation  of  God. 
It  has  an  important  bearing  on  the  subject  not  only 
morally,  but  physically  also.  There  may  be  some 
who  doubt  the  divine  origin  of  the  Hebrew  laws, 
but  they  cannot  question  the  historical  fact  that  under 
these  laws  the  people  rose  from  a condition  of 
slavery  to  the  glory  of  a great  nation  under  Solomon. 

For  four  hundred  and  thirty  years  the  Israelites 
had  lived  in  Egypt.  Generation  after  generation 
had  been  born  in  slavery,  the  burdens  of  their  Eg}"p- 
tian  taskmasters  pressing  harder  and  harder  upon 
the  subject  race.  Everything  possible  was  done  to 
break  their  spirit,  even  to  the  murder  of  their  male 


THE  MORAL  PLEA  FAILS 


15 


children,  Moses  was  called  upon  to  lead  his  rescued 
people  to  the  Land  of  Promise  and  take  possession 
of  a country  already  inhabited  by  warlike  tribes. 
A long  period  of  preparation  was  necessary  to  fit 
the  wanderers  for  their  task.  During  the  pilgrim- 
age a new  generation  was  born  free  from  the  demor- 
alizing influence  of  slavery,  and  trained  under  laws 
of  morality  and  health  which  have  become  the  foun- 
dation of  our  civilization. 

The  law  of  Moses  deals  distinctly  with  the  use 
of  alcohol,  in  the  form  of  wine.  In  the  directions 
for  the  harvest  it  divided  the  product  of  the  vine- 
yard in  the  same  manner  that  the  grain  of  the  field 
was  apportioned.  The  first  share  was  for  a drink 
offering  to  the  Lord.  After  that  came  the  share 
of  the  owner  of  the  vineyard.  The  third  share  was 
reserved  for  the  poor  as  a necessary  food.  There 
is  no  hesitation  or  hypocrisy  here.  Wine  is  dedi- 
cated both  to  the  glory  of  God  and  to  the  natural 
use  of  all  the  people. 

So  much,  briefly,  for  the  religious  aspect  of  the 
question.  The  prohibitionists  cannot  base  any  legit- 
imate arguments  on  the  Christian  or  Mosaic  dis- 
pensations. 

Alcohol  is  a food  in  the  broad  sense,  because  un- 
der certain  conditions  it  may  be  essential  for  the 
proper  nourishment  of  the  body.  The  alcoholic 
craving  has  its  foundation  in  normal  requirements. 


1 6 THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


This,  together  with  the  fact  that  alcohol  is  a free 
gift  of  nature,  will  make  it  impossible  to  suppress 
its  use  by  prohibitory  laws.  The  passage  of  the 
Eighteenth  Amendment  has  not  changed  the  human 
system:  it  has  merely  put  back  the  cause  of  tem- 
perance a hundred  and  fifty  years.  Anyone  can 
make  alcohol.  Indeed,  in  many  of  the  products  of 
the  kitchen,  where  sugars  and  acids  are  combined, 
the  housewife  must  exercise  the  greatest  care  to 
avoid  making  it.  The  American  people  had  become 
accustomed  to  buying  their  alcoholic  beverages  ready 
made.  The  manufacture  was  in  the  hands  of  a very 
small  percentage  of  the  population  and  so  was  easily  ' 
regulated.  The  Eighteenth  Amendment  has  changed  I 
all  this.  America  is  fast  becoming  ar\  immense  I 
brewery.  The  relation  between  supply  and  demand  | 
is  not  a matter  of  fiat,  but  of  fact.  The  substitu- 
tion, however,  of  tyros  for  experts  in  brewing  arid 
distilling,  and  of  compulsory  stealth  for  natural  free- 
dom, can  scarcely  be  considered  an  improvement. 
Still,  experience  teaches;  the  novice  becomes  an  | 
adept,  even  under  unpleasant  conditions.  There  will 
be  more  and  better  illicit  alcohol  as  time  goes  by. 

The  use  of  alcohol  may  be  regulated,  but  not 
prohibited.  So  far  from  improving  the  morals  of 
the  people,  prohibition  will  only  increase  hypocrisy 
and  graft.  There  is  not  much  doubt  about  this,  for 
it  has  already  happened.  i 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  HEALTH  PLEA 

Prohibition  failed  as  a moral  issue  because  the 
two  great  American  religions  were  traditionally  op- 
posed to  it.  Something  new  had  to  be  tried,  and  the 
success  of  the  dry  movement  in  certain  Southern 
states  offered  a suggestion.  Prohibition  had  made 
headway  there  because  it  was  distinctly  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  South  to  remove  temptation  from  the 
negro  race.  Self-interest  is  a powerful  entering 
wedge  for  any  argument,  and  the  leaders  of  the  dry 
campaign  began  a survey  of  the  country  in  an  effort 
to  find  interests  which  coincided  with  their  own  and 
which  they  could  utilize. 

Of  course,  the  soft  drink  manufacturers  were  not 
overlooked.  But  while  they  might  prove  helpful 
from  the  financial  standpoint  later  on,  they  were 
unorganized  and  of  little  influence  in  the  country, 
and  the  selfish  viewpoint  would  be  altogether  too 
obvious.  However,  three  great  and  thoroughly 
systematized  interests  were  found  in  receptive  mood : 
the  American  Medical  Association,  the  Life  Insur- 
ance Companies,  and  the  Standard  Oil  Company. 

17 


1 8 THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

\ 

There  were  also  certain  other  large  corporations  j 
whose  efficiency  experts  had  been  able  to  show  that 
alcohol  was  increasing  the  cost  of  labor. 

The  American  Medical  Association  maintained 
the  most  powerful  trained  lobby  in  the  country.  As 
far  back  as  1907  the  association  had  an  agent  in 
each  of  the  2,830  counties  of  the  United  States, 
and  its  list  of  approachable  political  leaders  num- 
bered 16,000.  Its  interest  was  so  distinctly  on  the 
side  of  prohibition  that  it  has  become  the  great 
power  behind  the  movement.  The  financial  backing 
of  the  other  organizations  was  naturally  of  great  : 
importance.  In  addition,  the  life  insurance  com- 
panies were  able  to  furnish  valuable  statistics,  and 
the  private  charities  of  the  Rockefellers  offered  a 
convenient  cloak.  How  much  the  latter  were  in- 
fluenced by  their  relations  with  Organized  Medicine 
lit  is  impossible  to  say.  But  the  plea  of  health  and 
human  efficiency  was  given  the  premier  position  in 
the  propaganda  for  prohibition. 

In  enlisting  medicine  in  their  cause  the  dry  party 
acquired  one  of  the  most  powerful  agencies  in  our 
modern  life,  the  influence  of  the  family  physician* 

In  many  a home  in  America  this  is  a greater  con- 
tinuous force  than  any  other.  There  are  many 
stories  to  illustrate  the  doctor’s  prestige,  but  one  will  j 
suffice.  * 

Tucked  away  in  the  hills  of  New  England  is  a ^ 


THE  HEALTH  PLEA 


19 


little  village,  the  summer  home  of  two  intimate 
friends.  As  boys  they  had  left  this  same  village  to 
make  their  way  in  the  world  beyond.  They  had  been 
schoolmates  together,  and  later  on  attended  the 
same  college.  They  were  both  interested  in  the  same 
sports  and  pursuits,  and  the  boyish  friendship  grew 
and  ripened  with  the  years.  One  of  them  took  up 
the  study  of  medicine;  the  other  went  into  business 
and  afterwards  married.  In  the  course  of  events  a 
child  was  born,  and  who  more  fitting  to  attend  at 
that  critical  period  than  the  friend  whom  the  father 
had  learned  to  trust  since  boyhood?  Other  chil- 
dren came,  and  the  physician,  then  a rising  prac- 
titioner, cared  for  them  through  the  illnesses  of 
childhood,  and  the  children  learned  to  trust  their 
father’s  friend.  And  finally  there  came  a time  when 
the  doctor  was  called  upon  to  share  in  the  family’s 
affliction.  The  wife  and  mother,  through  an  un- 
fortunate accident,  was  injured  beyond  the  curative 
power  of  any  physician.  But  day  and  night  he 
watched  at  her  bedside,  alleviating  pain  wherever 
possible  and  giving  the  immeasurable  comfort  of  his 
presence  and  skill.  If  anything  could  add  to  that 
household’s  love  and  respect,  it  was  his  sympathy 
with  their  loss,  his  comprehension  of  their  grief. 

You  may  wonder,  perhaps,  as  to  the  precise  ap- 
plication of  this  episode.  It  is  given  here  because 


20  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


li 


it  is  typical,  not  merely  individual;  because  there 
are  thousands  of  similar  cases  throughout  America. 
Think  of  what  that  must  mean;  the  enormous  influ- 
ence exerted  by  such  physicians  amongst  the  mem- 
bers of  innumerable  families.  And  this  influence, 
in  itself  so  natural  and  splendid,  is  being  exploited 
in  a partisan  cause  and  for  special  and  specious  in- 
terests. The  general  practitioner  himself  has  not 
much  choice  in  the  matter.  It  is  difficult  for  him  to 
oppose  for  any  length  of  time  the  settled  policy  of 
his  professional  organization.  It  is  almost  impos- 
sible for  him  to  remain  in  the  association  and  defy 
its  crushing  disciplinary  powers,  open  and  covert. 
He  can  try  to  do  so,  of  course,  if  he  chooses.  Others 
have  sometimes  made  the  attempt, — and  sometimes 
regretted  it.  As  an  alternative,  the  practitioner  may 
resign  his  membership  in  the  association  and  be- 
come an  “outlaw.”  But  that  involves  a new  profes-  | 
sional  outlook,  the  severance  of  old  ties,  the  up-  I 
rooting  of  fixed  habits,  and  an  absolutely  fresh  start. 
Besides,  he  has  still  to  face  the  resentment  of  the  or-  - 
ganization,  which  does  not  readily  forget;  and  there  I 
is  no  efficient  outlaw  organization  to  which  he  can 
turn  for  protection.  It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that 
the  harassed  practitioner,  when  he  differs  from  the 
views  of  the  authorities,  should  decide  to  feign  an  ! 
acquiescence  that  he  does  not  feel.  Only  the  prom- 


THE  HEALTH  PLEA 


21 


inent  and  pushing—the  leaders  of  cliques  and  fac- 
tions— have  the  privilege  of  self-assertion  in  medical 
circles.  The  rank  and  file  have  to  be  content  with 
obedience,  or  the  black  list. 


CHAPTER  IV 


ORGANIZED  MEDICINE 

To  understand  the  recent  opposition  of  Or- 
ganized Medicine  to  alcohol,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  trace  the  development  of  this  great  power  through 
its  earlier  stages,  describing  in  some  detail  the  vari- 
ous incidents  and  influences  which  have  led  up  to 
the  present  situation.  Many  of  them  are  extremely 
instructive. 

Beginning  in  a small  way,  in  the  meetings  of  the 
town  and  county  medical  societies  for  the  discussion 
of  scientific  matters  or  social  betterment,  a huge 
organization  has  been  built  up.  Gradually,  the 
agents  of  this  organization  have  obtained  positions 
of  importance  in  the  various  institutions  and  estab- 
lishments concerned  with  the  national  health,  until 
finally  they  have  taken  over  the  complete  control  of 
our  medical  departments,  both  state  and  federal. 

Before  the  days  of  Pasteur  the  science  of  medicine 
was  little  more  than  a mosaic  of  superstition.  The 
physician  had  learned  to  recognize  certain  diseases 
and  often  obtained  definite  results  in  treatment,  but 

the  causes  of  disease,  its  progress  and  the  reactions 

22 


ORGANIZED  MEDICINE 


23 


of  the  body,  were  obscured.  Of  all  the  applied  sci- 
ences, medicine  was  the  most  backward.  With  the 
discovery  of  germ  life,  and  its  relation  to  pathogeny, 
a new  era  commenced.  One  after  another,  the  or- 
ganisms which  are  the  cause  of  our  various  diseases 
were  isolated.  And  this  knowledge  was  closely 
followed  by  the  discovery  of  the  curative  forces,  of 
the  body  itself.  A wonderful  and  supremely  im- 
portant field  of  research  was  opening  before  the 
eyes  of  the  scientific  world. 

No  one  can  take  even  a casual  glance  into  the 
maze  of  serum  therapy  without  being  impressed  by 
its  intricacies  and  the  tremendous  amount  of  labor 
necessary  for  its  exploration.  Especially  is  this  true 
of  the  body’s  own  curative  forces.  Little  by  little, 
and  only  after  the  most  painstaking  research,  was 
the  knowledge  of  these  forces  obtained,  one  truth, 
found  after  years  of  study  and  experiment,  leading 
on  to  another  until  finally  nature’s  marvellous  mech- 
anism was  revealed  in  its  entirety. 

This  work  was  accomplished  by  the  scientists  of 
Europe.  The  names  of  Pasteur,  Metchnikoff,  Bor- 
det, Ehrlich,  Behring,  Pfeiffer,  Wright  and  Douglas, 
will  always  be  associated  with  the  great  achieve- 
ment. The  fact  that  America,  though  leading  the 
world  in  other  lines  of  effort  through  the  inventive 
genius  of  her  scientists  and  mechanicians,  neverthe- 
less played  so  inconsiderable  a part  in  medical  de- 


24  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

velopment  was  due  to  the  code  of  ethics  originally 
foisted  upon  American  practitioners  by  their  Euro- 
pean brethren.  Well-meaning  in  principle,  this  code 
was  fatal  in  practice.  It  was  found  depressing  even 
In  the  environment  of  its  birth.  Here,  it  was  im- 
possible. 

The  economic  situation  was  an  Important  factor. 
America  was  then  In  the  midst  of  a tremendous  in- 
dustrial boom.  The  great  corporations  were  offer- 
ing large  financial  inducements  for  the  best  brains 
that  the  country  could  produce.  The  natural  law 
of  supply  and  demand  will  apply  whether  the  com- 
modity Is  the  brains  of  a scientist  or  a sack  of  pota- 
toes. The  medical  code  required — and  still  re- 
quires— that  any  discovery  or  invention  for  the  more 
effective  treatment  of  disease  should  be  given  to  the 
world  for  its  free  use.  It  is  this  old  world  theory, 
denying  the  right  of  the  skilled  practitioner  to  the 
product  of  his  labor,  which  has  done  more  than  any- 
thing else  to  retard  the  advance  of  medicine  in  the 
United  States.  Deprived  of  its  legitimate  rewards 
in  the  medical  field,  genius  was  Inevitably  diverted 
into  other  channels.  There  was  too  much  competi- 
tion for  it  to  remain  where  it  would  only  stultify 
itself.  The  laborer  Is  worthy  of  his  hire,  and  for 
priceless  labor  it  seems  rather  ironic  to  receive  no 
price  at  all. 

I have  recently  had  an  opportunity  of  discussing 


ORGANIZED  MEDICINE 


25 

this  question  with  a bacteriologist  of  International 
reputation.  In  explaining  his  point  of  view  he  told 
the  following  story.  When  Behring  perfected  his 
antitoxin  for  diphtheria,  he  attempted  to  patent 
it.  He  was  prevented  from  doing  so  because  his 
colleagues  did  not  think,  In  view  of  the  work  which 
others  had  done  and  by  which  he  had  profited,  that 
he  alone  should  reap  the  reward;  for  although  they 
had  failed,  his  success  was  built  upon  foundations 
which  they  had  established.  If  a reward  was  to  be 
given  it  should  be  distributed  among  all  (or  on  be- 
half of  all),  living  or  dead,  who  had  contributed  to 
his  final  triumph.  That  may  seem  to  some  a counsel 
of  perfection;  to  me  it  seems  simply  a plea  of  in- 
eptitude. Our  civilization  would  be  in  a curious 
state  if  the  creators  of  our  steam  engines  and  auto- 
mobiles had  been  denied  patents,  because  someone 
in  a prehistoric  age  had  used  the  wheel  on  the  ox- 
>cart;  or  if  perfecting  the  open-hearth  furnace  had 
i brought  no  reward  from  the  steel  industry  because 
'some  antediluvian  ancestor  had  employed  fire  in 
broiling  a steak. 

As  a result  of  the  success  of  the  foreign  investi- 
gators, the  practising  physidan  became  dependent 

Iupon  Europe  for  his  medical  knowledge.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  during  this  period  the  science 
of  medicine  was  making  tremendous  strides.  More 
was  being  accomplished  than  in  all  the  years  since 


26  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


Hippocrates.  Our  institutions  were  kept  busy  test- 
ing the  theories  of  the  European  schools  and  passing 
them  on  to  the  practitioners.  These  institutions 
of  research  thus  became  clearing  houses  and  dis- 
tributing points  for  the  new  medical  facts,  and  the 
control  of  medicine  centered  In  the  hands  of  the  few 
who  were  able  to  speak  with  authority.  With  such 
a foundation  it  was  a comparatively  easy  matter  to 
build  up  a political  machine  whose  power  has  never 
been  exceeded,  unless  by  the  religious  organizations 
of  the  Middle  Ages. 

And  then  occurred  the  very  thing  which  the  code 
of  medical  ethics  was  intended  to  prevent — the  com- 
mercializing of  medical  knowledge.  Our  medical 
authorities  embarked  upon  the  manufacture  of  the 
newly  discovered  biological  products,  some  openly, 
others  sub  rosa  through  the  medium  of  their  more 
venturesome  associates.  And  although  many  of 
these  vaccines  and  serums  proved  complete  failures, 
they  were  marketed  In  large  quantities. 

With  the  completion  of  their  organization,  one  of 
the  first  movements  undertaken  by  the  medical  ring 
was  a campaign  against  the  patent  medicines. 
There  had  grown  up  in  the  country  a great  business, 
the  manufacture  of  nostrums.  Some  of  these  were 
utterly  worthless,  others  contained  drugs  which  any- 
one could  procure  from  the  corner  pharmacy.  They 
were  prepared  in  fancy  packages,  under  high-sound- 


ORGANIZED  MEDICINE 


27 


ing  titles,  and  sold  to  the  credulous  and  unwary. 
They  had  already  been  condemned  by  the  practising 
physician  because  in  many  instances  the  beneficial 
effect  was  at  best  illusory,  while  they  were  often  defi- 
nitely detrimental  either  through  harmful  ingredients 
or  through  the  ignorance  and  improper  use  of  the 
buyers — “addicts”  as  many  of  them  could  justly 
be  called,  for  the  patent  medicine  habit  has  a tend- 
ency to  become  chronic.  The  campaign  against  these 
nostrums  unquestionably  strengthened  the  hands  of 
the  medical  authorities,  both  with  the  sensible  por- 
tion of  the  lay  public  and  with  the  general  body 
of  practitioners,  who  naturally  did  not  wish  to  see 
their  lawful  practices  thus  cut  into,  to  their  own  loss 
and  the  manifest  danger  of  their  patients. 

The  campaign  was  conducted  along  two  lines,  the 
education  of  the  public  and  the  passage  of  inhibitory 
legislation.  The  association  leaders  attempted  to 
stop  self-medication  by  making  it  necessary  for  the 
layman  to  obtain  a doctor’s  prescription  before  he 
could  purchase  even  the  simplest  form  of  drug. 
Tailing  in  this,  they  tried  to  force  the  publication 
lof  the  formulas  of  all  proprietaries.  The  neces- 
sary legislation  was  pushed  in  every  state  and  in 
jCongress;  the  bills  are  part  of  our  legislative  rec- 
ijords.  In  this  campaign  we  see  the  first  leaning  of 
.Organized  Medicine  towards  prohibition,  ^peak- 
'"ing  before  a meeting  of  the  Women’s  Christian  Tern- 


28  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


perance  Union  at  Nashville,  Tennessee,  the  spokes- 
man of  the  American  Medical  Association  said: 
“The  average  drug-store  in  the  United  States  is  little 
more  than  a saloon  for  the  sale  of  disguised  alcohol 
and  ‘dope’  under  the  pretence  of  patent  medicines.” 

The  drive  against  the  proprietary  preparations 
had  a very  important  though  unforeseen  effect,  and 
the  American  practising  physician  became  the  chief 
sufferer.  The  campaign  was  conducted  on  such 
broad  lines  that  not  only  was  it  directed  against  the 
fake  nostrum,  but  even  the  legitimate  proprietary 
was  attacked.  Improvement  in  drugs  was  thus  dis- 
couraged and  the  physician  had  to  look  for  his  medi- 
cines to  the  countries,  particularly  Germany,  whose 
laws  encouraged  pharmaceutical  chemistry. 

This  was  not  the  only  result.  The  propaganda 
against  drugs  was  pushed  so  vigorously  that  it  be- 
gan to  create  a doubt  in  the  minds  of  the  public 
as  to  the  value  of  drugs  in  the  treatment  of  dis- 
ease. This  idea  was  supported  for  financial  reasons 
by  the  manufacturers  of  the  various  biological  prod- 
ucts, who  were  aided  by  their  partners  in  official 
positions.  As  a consequence  the  regular  school  of 
medicine,  which  had  relied  on  drugs  from  time  im- 
memorial, suddenly  found  itself  confronted  by  a new 
and  virile  cult,  the  school  of  drugless  medicine. 
How  serious  a menace  this  has  become  to  the  pres- 
tige of  the  regular  practitioner  is  shown  by  the  fact  I 


ORGANIZED  MEDICINE 


29 

that  these  “physicians  of  health” — the  osteopath, 
the  chiropractor,  the  dietician — are  now  able  to 
claim  that  their  clients  number  twenty-eight  millions. 
It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  regular  physi- 
cians were  satisfied  to  see  their  patients  slip  away 
from  them.  There  was  much  criticism,  even  ridi- 
cule, of  their  leaders,  and  in  some  instances  open 
rebellion.  But  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  practi- 
tioner decided  that  it  was  politic  to  retain  his  mem- 
bership in  the  association.  However,  it  began  to 
[dawn  upon  him  that  some  of  the  medical  authorities 
'were  lining  their  pockets  at  his  expense, 

I In  all  this,  serum  therapy  played  an  important 
[part. 


CHAPTER  V 


THE  SERUM  CONTROVERSY 

When  we  consider  that  for  centuries  man  had 
been  groping  in  vain  for  the  causes  of  disease,  it  is 
easy  to  account  for  the  strong  appeal  of  the  new 
science.  After  it  was  discovered  that  a small  amount  i 
of  serum  derived  from  a horse  which  had  been 
inoculated  with  the  diphtheria  bacillus  would  pro- : 
tect  a human  being  against  the  specific  toxin  of  the  | 
disease,  it  was  thought  that  within  a short  time  sue- 1 
cessful  preparations  would  be  secured  from  the  i 
germs  of  other  diseases.  We  now  know  that  there  i 
is  great  variety  in  pathogenic  organisms  and  that ; 
many  of  them  do  not  yield  to  serum  therapy. 
Nevertheless,  certain  definite  results  had  been  I 
achieved  and  our  medical  authorities  were  able  to  j 
obtain  support  for  their  work  in  government  appro- 
priations and  large  contributions  from  private  in- 
dividuals. In  addition,  valuable  publicity  was  se- 
cured from  the  press  of  the  country.  With  this 
support,  it  was  a comparatively  easy  matter  to  per-  j 
suade  the  practitioner  to  accept  serum  therapy.  ■ 

But  it  soon  became  evident  that  the  authorities  had  , 


30 


THE  SERUM  CONTROVERSY  31 

been  over-sanguine  and  that  serum  therapy  was  far 
from  accomplishing  all  that  had  been  hoped  for. 
The  failure  reacted  against  its  advocates  and  opened 
a point  of  attack  for  the  osteopath  and  chiropractor, 
which  they  were  not  slow  to  use  to  advantage.  It 
is  quite  possible  that  the  newer  medical  schools 
would  have  been  content  to  “live  and  let  live.”-  They 
had  received  some  recognition  from  the  regular  prac- 
titioners, who  occasionally  called  in  their  assistance. 
But  Organized  Medicine,  jealous  of  its  control,  un- 
dertook a campaign  against  them,  hoping  to  limit 
i their  practice  by  legislation.  In  some  of  the  states 
! this  was  actually  accomplished;  and  so  the  newer 
I schools  felt  compelled  to  retaliate.  The  following, 
taken  from  Dr,  Alma  C.  Arnold’s  “The  Triangle 
of  Health,”  will  serve  as  an  example  of  their 
methods : 

' “Infantile  Paralysis  and  Vaccination:  Do  you 
know  that  infantile  paralysis  often  follows  vac- 
cination? (See  report  by  James  A.  Loyster  of 
I investigations  of  54  cases  of  illness  and  death 
from  vaccination  in  New  York  State  during  1914, 

' and  statistics.) 

j “Do  you  know  that  investigation  of  the  epi- 
] demies  of  1907  and  1916  produced  strong  evi- 
J dence  that  they  were  started  from  vaccine  virus? 
(See  New  York  Herald  for  September  28,  1916,) 

■I 


32  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

“Do  you  know  that  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment proved  that  the  epidemics  of  foot  and 
mouth  disease,  which  swept  this  country  in  1902-3  | 
and  1908-14,  were  started  from  vaccine  virus?  j 
(See  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry,  Circular  No. 
147,  and  Farmers’  Bulletin  No.  666.) 

“Do  you  know  that  hundreds  of  United  States 
soldiers  on  the  Texas  border  have  suffered  from  | 
paratyphoid  fever  caused  by  typhoid  vaccination? 
(See  newspapers  and  Army  Reports.) 

“Do  you  kno’w  that  the  cases  of  typhoid  fever 
among  the  Spanish-American  war  soldiers  in  1898 
(before  the  discovery  of  typhoid  vaccine) 
amounted  to  8.8  per  cent.?  (See  U.  S.  Army  Re- 
ports.) 

“Do  you  know  that  when  the  14th  Regiment 
N.  Y.  N.  G.,  U.  S.,  arrived  at  Camp  Whitman 
from  the  Texas  border,  the  cases  of  paratyphoid, 
together  with  the  healthy  active  carriers, 
amounted  to  17  per  cent. — double  that  of  1898? 
(See  N.  Y.  Health  Department  Reports.) 

“Do  you  know  that  paratyphoid  fever  is  human 
hog-cholera?  (Appleton’s  Medical  Dictionary,  1 
January,  1916,  defines  it:  ‘Paratyphoid — resem- 
bling typhoid  fever  or  the  typhoid  bacillus.  Par-  I 
atyphoid  bacillus — an  organism  belonging  to  the  | 
hog-cholera  group,  which  causes  paratyphoid 
fever.’) 


THE  SERUM  CONTROVERSY  33 

“Do  you  know  that  nearly  70,000  British  sol- 
diers (all  vaccinated  for  typhoid  immunity) 
were  sent  home  from  the  Gallipoli  Peninsula 
with  tuberculosis,  and  as  a result  compulsory  vac- 
cination has  been  abolished  in  England?  (See  re- 
port of  speeches  in  the  House  of  Commons.) 

“Do  you  know  that  New  York  City  statistics 
show  that  cancer  has  increased  there  fully  225 
per  cent,  since  1870?  (See  Board  of  Health  Re- 
port.) 

“Do  you  know  that  cancer  and  tuberculosis 
are  traced  by  specialists  to  blood  debasement  from 
vaccination?  (See  writings  of  Sir  Robert  Bell, 
for  43  years  cancer  specialist  in  London;  and 
many  others.) 

“Do  you  know  that,  contrary  to  the  general 
belief,  the  wide  use  of  diphtheria  antitoxin  has 
neither  lowered  the  number  of  cases,  nor  the 
deaths?  (See  Report  of  special  inquiry  by  the 
New  York  City  Health  Department,  published  in 
the  New  York  World  for  June  12,  1916.) 

“Do  you  know  that  the  Flexner  serum  for 
cerebro-spinal  meningitis  was  injected  into  15 
children  in  the  City  Hospital  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
and  that  14  died  within  five  minutes?  (See  full 
report  in  the  Cincinnati  Enquirer  for  March  18, 
1914.) 

“Do  you  know  that  the  recurrence  of  the  out- 


34  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

break  of  foot  and  mouth  disease  in  1916  was  due 
to  anti-hog-cholera  serum?  (See  Report  of  the 
Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  for  September  28, 
1915.) 

“Do  you  know  that,  following  this  discovery, 
the  Canadian  Government  passed  a law  prohibit- 
ing the  use  of  these  serums? 

“These  are  facts!  Can  you  disprove  them,  or 
do  you  know  anyone  who  can?”  j 

In  thus  striking  at  serum  therapy,  the  newer 
schools  were  aiming  a blow  at  the  very  foundation 
of  the  medical  power.  Mystery,  like  superstition, 
has  always  been  a golden  key  in  the  hands  of  those 
whose  superior  knowledge  enabled  them  to  use  it. 
Anybody  who  has  followed  the  medical  items  in  the  ' 
public  press  will  recall  how  consistently  the  mysteries  1 
of  serum  therapy  have  been  overworked  to  reassure  1 
the  public  during  the  recent  epidemics,  and  to  allay  ' 
the  general  clamor  at  the  failure  of  the  measures 
adopted  by  the  medical  authorities.  These  attacks 
were  continued  in  pamphlets  and  in  paid  advertise- 
ments in  the  newspapers.  That  they  were  not  with-  I 
out  effect  is  shown  by  the  difficulty  which  the  advo- 
cates of  serum  therapy  began  to  experience  in  ob- 
taining government  appropriations  for  their  work.  ; 
Serious  as  this  might  appear  to  those  who  aimed  at  I 
the  permanent  control  of  medicine  in  the  United 
States,  a still  graver  danger  threatened. 


CHAPTER  VI 


A NEW  FACTOR 

Among  the  many  brilliant  investigators  whose 
names  are  associated  with  the  solution  of  the  dis- 
ease problem,  probably  no  one  accomplished  more 
than  Paul  Ehrlich.  One  of  our  greatest  authori- 
ties on  infection  and  immunity  calls  him  the  “Grand- 
master of  experimental  medicine.”  It  was  Ehrlich 
who  demonstrated  how  the  body,  when  attacked  by 
pathogenic  organisms,  produced  its  antibodies,  thus 
elucidating  one  of  the  most  important  problems  in 
medicine,  that  of  nature’s  second  and  final  defence 
against  disease.  His  side-chain  theory  has  now 
passed  many  corroborative  tests  and  is  generally  ac- 
cepted by  the  medical  profession. 

This  discovery  was  of  the  greatest  importance, 
because  hitherto  it  had  been  supposed  that  once  the 
mechanism  of  the  body  was  understood,  the  control 
of  disease  would  be  assured.  Ehrlich  was  able  to 
show  that  if  the  Infection  exceeded  a certain  degree 
of  virulence,  it  was  too  powerful  for  the  curative 
forces  of  the  body.  But  in  other  sciences  man  has 
improved  on  nature’s  methods,  and  Ehrlich  turned 

35 


36  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

to  the  germicide  to  find  a power  greater  than  nature 
herself  was  able  to  apply  just  where  and  when  it 
was  needed.  Antiseptics  had  come  into  very  general 
use  for  the  treatment  of  all  infections  of  the  outer 
parts  of  the  body,  and  they  were  widely  employed 
in  sanitation.  Further,  it  had  been  shown  that  the 
effectiveness  of  some  of  the  drugs  of  the  older  phar- 
macopoeia was  partially  due  to  germicidal  proper- 
ties. Ehrlich  began  a series  of  experiments  with  a 
view  to  obtaining  a germicide  which  could  be  used 
effectively  in  the  body.  And  thus  a new  theory  in 
medicine,  chemotherapy,  was  born. 

The  ordinary  germicide  is  so  poisonous  that  any 
attempt  to  employ  it  in  the  body  for  the  destruction 
of  a parasite  would  also  prove  fatal  to  the  host. 
This  was  clearly  the  first  difficulty  to  overcome. 
There  are  many  chemicals  with  germicidal  proper- 
ties whose  toxicity  can  be  partially  or  wholly  neutral- 
ized by  combination  with  other  chemicals.  Ehrlich 
conceived  the  idea  of  producing  by  chemical  com- 
bination a germicide  which,  though  the  toxicity  had 
been  eliminated,  would  still  retain  sufficient  germi- 
cidal power  to  be  effective  in  medication.  A second 
very  serious  difficulty  was  encountered.  It  soon  de- 
veloped that  a germicide  might  prove  effective  in 
the  laboratory  test  tube  but  not  when  taken  into 
the  system,  where  it  entered  into  a chemical  com- 
bination with  the  albumins  of  the  blood  and  so  lost 


A NEW  FACTOR 


37 

its  germicidal  power.  Ehrlich,  however,  was  not  to 
be  baffled.  Chemical  after  chemical  was  combined, 
and  at  last,  in  his  six  hundred  and  sixth  attempt,  he 
produced  his  Salvarsan.  While  Salvarsan  was  not 
entirely  effective  it  served  to  demonstrate  the  correct- 
ness of  the  theory;  and  it  was  followed  by  a later 
combination  on  the  same  lines,  Neo-salvarsan. 

In  1909  and  1910  Ehrlich  published  treatises  on 
his  experiments  in  chemotherapy.  These  created  a 
profound  impression  on  the  leaders  of  Organized 
Medicine.  It  was  realized  that  if  his  theories  were 
sound,  chemistry  would  play  the  chief  part  in  medi- 
cine in  the  future  and  the  chemist  who  produced  a 
perfect  germicide  would  be  in  a position  to  dictate 
to  the  profession  throughout  the  world.  If  chemo- 
therapy should  replace  serum  therapy,  the  vast  sums 
which  the  manufacturers  and  other  advocates  of 
serum  were  receiving  might  be  turned  into  another 
channel.  It  was  even  within  the  bounds  of  possi- 
bility that  chemists  might  be  able  to  establish  their 
right  to  places  on  the  medical  boards.  Then,  too, 
chemotherapy  might  be  adopted  by  the  newer  schools 
of  medicine  and  the  union  of  these  two  interests 
form  a combination  which  it  would  be  difficult  for 
the  organization  to  withstand.  There  seemed  but 
one  way  out,  the  passage  of  such  laws  as  would  in- 
sure complete  control  to  the  association. 

During  the  legislative  campaign  against  patent 


38  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

medicines  it  had  been  demonstrated  that  restrictive 
laws  could  not  be  passed  without  outside  help.  There 
had  been  some  successes,  such  as  the  passage  of 
the  laws  relating  to  habit-forming  drugs.  But  the 
legislatures  were  unwilling  to  restrict  pharmaceu- 
tical chemistry  to  the  point  desired  by  the  medical 
trust.  The  success  of  the  drug  law,  however,  sug- 
gested a way  out  of  the  difficulty.  If,  through  a 
trade  with  the  prohibitionists,  the  association  should 
be  able  to  put  whisky  on  the  prescription  shelf,  it 
would  be  but  a short  step  further  to  extend  the  law 
to  proprietaries  containing  alcohol.  And  this  might 
be  pushed  further  still  to  cover  all  pharmaceuticals, 
including  germicides,  once  the  people  had  become 
accustomed  to  government  regulation  in  such 
matters. 

But  time  went  by,  Ehrlich  died,  and  no  chemist 
had  been  able  to  produce  an  effective  internal  germi- 
cide, although  both  European  and  American  ex- 
perts had  made  many  attempts.  The  medical  trust 
began  to  breathe  more  easily.  This,  however,  was 
not  to  last.  In  1916  the  American  Medical  Asso- 
ciation was  notified  that  a new  germicide  had  been 
produced  and  that  its  effectiveness  had  been  sub- 
stantiated by  careful  experiments.  Some  time  was 
spent  by  the  organization  in  verifying  these  facts 
and  in  negotiating  for  the  control  of  formulas  and 
process.  But  it  was  evident  that  control  could  not 


A NEW  FACTOR 


39 


be  established  in  this  way  and  that  legislation  must 
be  resorted  to.  A time  for  action  had  come  at  last. 
At  a meeting  of  the  association  held  on  June  6, 
1917,  Dr.  Charles  H.  Mayo  made  a strong  address 
in  favor  of  national  prohibition,  and  at  a later  meet- 
ing of  the  House  of  Delegates  the  following  resolu- 
tion was  passed: 

“Whereas,  We  believe  that  the  use  of  alcohol 
is  detrimental  to  the  human  economy,  and 
Whereas,  Its  use  in  therapeutics  as  a tonic  or 
stimulant  or  for  food  has  no  scientific  value; 
therefore  be  it 

Resolved,  That  the  American  Medical  Asso- 
ciation is  opposed  to  the  use  of  alcohol  as  a bev- 
erage; and  be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  the  use  of  alcohol  as  a thera- 
peutic agent  should  be  further  discouraged.” 

The  medical  value  of  alcohol  was  known  to  the 
Babylonians  and  Phoenicians,  and  probably  in  the 
days  before  history  was  written.  Yet  in  one  sweep- 
ing statement  the  accumulated  experience  of  cen- 
turies was  thrown  overboard.  There  is  no  more  con- 
servative element  in  society  than  the  medical  pro- 
fession; its  traditions  and  training  all  tend  toward 
conservatism.  How  was  it,  then,  that  it  permitted 
its  leaders  to  put  through  anything  so  radical?  In 
the  first  place,  the  sentiment  was  not  unanimous. 


40  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

There  was  a strong  minority  feeling  against  the 
resolution  and,  following  its  passage,  the  question 
was  agitated  for  months  in  the  medical  press.  But 
the  theories  of  Ehrlich’s  followers  were  also  revolu- 
tionary. Medication  by  germicide  was  in  some  re- 
spects a complete  departure  from  established  prac- 
tice, and  the  very  conservatism  of  the  physician 
favored  the  passage  of  the  resolution  as  the  choice, 
if  one  must  be  made,  between  two  evils. 

The  medical  practitioner  receives  his  compensa- 
tion, in  most  instances,  on  the  basis  of  the  number  of 
visits  made.  Preventive  medicine,  in  spite  of  its 
boasted  achievements,  had  not  interfered  with  this 
method  of  charging.  But  Ehrlich’s  followers  had 
demonstrated  that  the  germicide  would  materially 
shorten  the  period  of  illness.  Its  adoption  there- 
fore would  reduce  the  physician’s  income  until  a new 
system  of  arranging  fees  should  be  put  in  force. 
This  would  not  be  difficult  to  devise,  and  common 
sense  clearly  calls  for  it.  But  the  inertia  of  the  pro- 
fession and  the  acquiescence  of  the  public  have  so 
far  preserved  the  old  way.  That  is  natural  enough, 
no  doubt;  custom  clings.  But  some  clinging  cloys. 
However,  the  antiquated  fee  system  played  its  part, 
as  has  just  been  indicated,  in  the  attitude  assumed 
by  the  profession  toward  the  two  questions  of  press- 
ing importance  brought  before  It — prohibition  and 
chemotherapy. 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  CHEMOTHERAPY 

Society  has  long  been  looking  for  some  method 
of  treatment  that  will  shorten  the  period  of  disease. 
Sanitation  and  preventive  medicine  have  indeed  done 
much  to  reduce  the  toll  which  sickness  exacts  from 
civilized  communities.  Nevertheless,  there  are  still 
many  diseases  which  appear  periodically  and  run 
their  course  undeterred  by  scientific  effort.  There 
could  be  no  more  important  contribution  to  national 
weal  and  wealth  than  cutting  the  waste  caused  by 
disease.  This  is  one  of  the  arguments  used  most 
frequently  by  the  prohibitionists.  We  may  there- 
fore consider  briefly  the  theories  of  the  chemothera- 
pists  and  see  what,  with  the  help  of  the  prohibi- 
tionists, Organized  Medicine  was  attempting  to  sup- 
press. 

Since  the  earliest  days  of  medical  science  the  cure 
of  disease  has  been  accomplished  by  the  natural 
powers  of  the  body.  In  cases  where  nature’s  defence 
and  the  attacking  force  of  the  infection  approach 
equality,  the  physician’s  influence  may  be  the  decisive 
factor.  By  the  use  of  drugs  he  may  reduce  fever, 

41 


42  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

relieve  pain,  correct  intestinal  disorders  or  stimulate 
activity  in  some  organ;  or  by  means  of  serum  he  may 
add  to  the  protective  forces  which  the  body  itself 
produces.  But,  in  a large  measure,  we  have  relied 
on  nature  to  accomplish  the  cure. 

The  defensive  forces  of  the  body  may  be  divided 
into  two  classes:  those  which  are  available  at  the 
time  the  infection  occurs,  and  those  which  develop 
as  the  direct  result  of  the  infection.  In  the  first 
class  are  normal  serum  and  the  power  of  the  white 
blood  corpuscles  and  other  phagocytes  to  ingest  dis- 
ease germs.  In  the  second  class  are  the  various 
bacteriolytic  and  antitoxic  antibodies  which  are  lib- 
erated by  the  cells  after  disease  has  found  a footing 
in  the  system. 

Infectious  disease  is  caused  by  minute  organisms 
which  make  their  way  through  the  outer  coverings 
of  the  body  into  the  system  proper.  This  is  termed 
infection.  When  it  occurs  the  organisms  or  germs 
are  met  by  the  first  defence  of  the  body,  the  white 
blood  corpuscles  gathering  at  the  point  of  invasion 
and  taking  up  and  destroying  the  invaders.  If  the 
germs  are  able  to  overcome  this  first  line  of  defence, 
they  multiply  and  infection  develops  into  infectious 
disease.  The  system  then  calls  upon  its  second  de- 
fence, the  antibodies.  From  this  stage  onward  the 
conditions  are  those  of  a great  battle  (in  its  own 
sphere),  each  side  bringing  up  its  reserves  in  large 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  CHEMOTHERAPY  43 

numbers;  the  germs,  it  may  be,  attempting  to  pre- 
vent antibody  formation  either  directly,  by  the  ac- 
tion of  their  toxins  on  the  cells,  or  indirectly  by 
their  effect  on  the  organs.  Thus  the  disease  advances 
to  a crisis,  the  outcome  depending  upon  the  relative 
strength  of  the  contending  forces.  All  this  involves 
of  course  a great  strain  on  the  body,  and  when  the 
conflict  is  over  and  victory  won,  nature  requires  a 
period  of  convalescence  to  repair  the  incidental 
damage. 

In  putting  forward  its  secondary  defence  the  body 
is  responding  to  a stimulus,  the  presence  of  the  germs 
in  the  system.  In  other  words,  it  reacts  to  the  in- 
fection. Antibody  formation,  or  the  manufacture 
of  the  body’s  own  germicides  and  antitoxins,  is  not 
carried  on  actively  until  the  infection  has  become 
established.  Valuable  time  is  thus  lost  while  the 
system  is  adjusting  itself  to  meet  the  invasion:  un- 
preparedness, here  at  least,  has  its  manifest  dangers. 
Ehrlich’s  followers  were  able  to  demonstrate  that 
a greater  germicidal  power  than  that  of  the  body  it- 
self could  be  applied  as  soon  as  the  first  symptoms 
gave  warning  of  the  infection,  and  that  the  germs 
could  be  destroyed  in  the  body  by  means  of  a chemi- 
cal germicide  long  before  nature  could  produce  anti- 
bodies in  sufficient  number  to  affect  the  situation. 
Thus  the  progress  of  the  disease  could  be  appreciably 
shortened,  and  in  consequence  a long  period  of  con- 


44  the  eighteenth  AMENDMENT 

valescence  avoided.  But  the  chemotherapists  went 
even  a step  further.  They  advanced  the  theory  that 
the  poison  of  disease  in  virulent  form  is  almost  as 
rapidly  destructive  as  some  of  the  mineral  poisons 
and  that  often  the  time  is  limited  in  which  success- 
ful treatment  can  be  undertaken.  Not  only,  then, 
did  they  advocate  a treatment  which  would  mate- 
rially shorten  the  period  of  illness,  but  they  went  so 
far  as  to  say  that  disease  must  be  cured  at  once 
unless  the  physician  would  risk  the  loss  of  his  patient. 

There  is  nothing  extraordinary  in  the  opposition 
of  the  medical  association  to  the  germicide.  It  is  not 
unprecedented  for  established  interests  to  oppose  the 
innovations  which  mark  the  advance  of  civilization, 
though  they  have  always  been  forced  to  admit  their 
error  later  and  acknowledge  the  benefits  which  have 
come  to  them  as  to  the  rest  of  mankind.  When 
textile  machinery  was  introduced  into  England,  it 
was  met  with  riots  and  arson.  At  that  time  the 
Manchester  weavers  numbered  five  thousand.  Just 
prior  to  the  Great  War  this  number  had  risen  to 
nearly  thirty  thousand,  while  individual  yardage  had 
increased  eight  or  ten  times,  though  the  population 
had  not  more  than  doubled.  Comparatively  re-  ! 
cently,  the  introduction  of  the  automobile  was  looked 
on  with  disfavor  by  the  horse  and  carriage  trade,  ) 
from  the  manufacturer  down  to  the  lowest  groom.  ; 
Yet  the  prosperity  enjoyed  by  the  manufacturer  who 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  CHEMOTHERAPY  45 

has  adopted  the  new  vehicle  has  never  been  equalled 
in  industrial  history,  while  the  coachman  or  groom 
has  materially  bettered  himself  by  accepting  the 
chauffeur’s  position. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Organized  Medicine,  duly 
concerned  with  its  own  material  interests,  will  re- 
alize that  a living  patient  is  more  profitable  than  a 
dead  one,  and  that  it  will  be  better  for  the  physician 
to  keep  his  patients  alive  even  though  a cure  is  ef- 
fected in  a fewer  number  of  chargeable  visits. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


A PROFITABLE  PARTNERSHIP 

The  resolution  of  the  American  Medical  Asso- 
ciation condemning  alcohol  was  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance to  the  advocates  of  prohibition.  They  realized 
fully  that  without  this  support  it  would  be  difficult  to 
maintain  the  constitutionality  of  the  Eighteenth 
Amendment.  American  institutions,  including  the 
Supreme  Court,  were  created  to  carry  out  certain 
principles  laid  down  in  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence. Among  these  was  the  right  of  every  man  to 
live — apparently  not  an  unreasonable  proposition. 

“We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that 
all  men  are  created  equal;  that  they  are  endowed 
by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights; 
that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness.  That,  to  secure  these  rights,  gov-  ' 
ernments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  i 
just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed.” 

If  alcohol  were  necessary  either  as  a food  or  a 
medicine  to  maintain  life,  then  prohibition  and  the  , 

46 


A PROFITABLE  PARTNERSHIP  47 

law  for  its  enforcement  would  be  clearly  contrary 
to  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution.  There  was  a de- 
cision of  the  British  courts  declaring  alcohol  to  be 
a food.  That  was  not  a legal  precedent  for  Amer- 
ica, but  it  showed  that  an  American  precedent  might 
easily  be  established.  By  some,  alcohol  was  con- 
sidered almost  fundamental  in  the  treatment  of  dis- 
ease. If  this  could  be  maintained,  no  law  could 
stand  that  would  make  it  necessary  to  pay  toll  to  a 
small  privileged  class  to  obtain  a commodity,  simple 
but  indispensable,  which  can  be  manufactured  in  the 
home  far  more  easily  than  most  foods  can  be  pre- 
pared. The  resolution  got  around  these  difficulties 
by  the  statement  that  “alcohol  is  detrimental  to  the 
human  economy.”  Thu^  the  anomalous  situation 
was  created  that  the  legality  of  an  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  might  become  de- 
pendent not  upon  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
but  upon  the  fiat  of  a medical  junto  whose  avowed 
purpose  was  to  safeguard  “the  material  interests  of 
the  medical  profession.” 

A programme  had  already  been  adopted  by  the 
association’s  Committee  on  Legislation.  An  exam- 
ination of  the  various  bills  that  have  been  introduced 
from  time  to  time  will  give  some  idea  of  the  scope 
of  this  programme.  They  provide  for  the  follow- 
ing: 


48  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

Control  of  medical  education  and  license  to 
practise,  including  suppression  of  independent 
opinion  and  conduct. 

Compulsory  publication  of  proprietary  formulas 
and  control  of  the  sales  through  physicians’  pre- 
scriptions. 

Compulsory  health  insurance,  or,  in  other 
words,  a state  subsidy  for  the  organized  profes- 
sion. 

To  these  was  now  added  the  sole  privilege  of  dis- 
pensing alcohol.  The  monopoly  would  serve  two 
purposes.  It  would  help  to  accustom  the  public  to 
medical  control  of  foods  and  drugs.  It  would  prove 
remunerative,  and  thus  restore  some  of  the  income 
which  had  been  lost  to  the  profession  through  the  | 
active  competition  of  the  osteopaths  and  other  health  | 
schools.  How  lucrative  prohibition  has  actually  ' 
proved  to  the  medical  profession  is  shown  by  a re-  ! 
cent  statement  of  the  federal  prohibition  director  i 
of  the  State  of  Illinois.  In  the  City  of  Chicago, 
where  the  headquarters  of  the  American  Medical  , 
Association  are  located^ during  the  firstTour  and 
one-half  months  of  national  prohibition  five  hundred 


issued,  and  the  federal  department  estimates  that  i 
of  these,  three  liundred  thousand  evaded  the  spirit 
or  letter  of  the  enforcement  law. 


A PROFITABLE  PARTNERSHIP  49 

To  put  the  association’s  programme  into  effect, 
control  of  the  legislatures  would  be  necessary.  It  was 
also  deemed  advisable,  if  possible,  to  place  a physi- 
cian in  the  White  House.  This  could  only  be  ac- 
complished with  strong  financial  backing,  but  the 
support  given  to  the  prohibitionists  by  the  associa- 
tion was  worth  any  price  which  might  be  demanded. 
The  necessary  supplies  could  be  obtained  from  the 
life  insurance  companies,  whose  medical  departments 
may  be  classed  as  a branch  of  Organized  Medicine, 
and  through  them  from  other  great  corporations, 
many  of  which  are  partly  controlled  by  the  Insur- 
ance companies  through  their  investments. 


CHAPTER  IX 


THE  OTHER  PARTNERS 


In  1908  the  life  insurance  companies  undertook 
an  investigation  of  the  mortality  among  their  policy 
holders.  A committee  of  actuaries  and  medical  di- 
rectors was  appointed,  of  which  Mr.  Arthur  Hunter, 
the  Actuary  of  the  New  York  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany, was  chairman.  The  material  was  taken  from 
the  records  of  two  million  policy  holders  and  the 
inquiry  covered  the  period  from  1885  to  1908. 
Careful  attention  was  directed  to  the  mortality 
among  those  policy  holders  using  alcohol  and  the 
results  were  classified  according  to  the  degree  of 
their  indulgence.  The  mortality  among  those  en- 
gaged in  the  various  branches  of  the  liquor  trade  was 
ascertained  separately,  and  the  figures  compared  with 
the  general  average  of  insured  individuals.  From 
these  statistics  it  was  apparent  that  alcohol  (or  its 
environment)  was  distinctly  unfavorable  to  longev- 
ity. Still,  no  attempt  was  made  to  analyze  the  dif- 
ferent conditions  prevailing  among  total  abstainers, 
so  that  no  comparisons  could  be  carried  out  to  de- 
termine how  much  of  the  increased  mortality  was 


THE  OTHER  PARTNERS 


51 

actually  due  to  alcohol,  and  how  much  could  be  at- 
tributed to  unhealthy  surroundings  and  other  factors. 

Life  insurance  is  run  on  a strictly  business  basis. 
The  lower  the  annual  premium,  the  better  showing 
life  insurance  will  make  when  compared  with  other 
forms  of  investment.  If  prohibition  would  improve 
the  mortality  table  by  increasing  the  general  expect- 
ancy, the  insurance  companies  could  well  afford  to 
devote  a few  years’  savings  towards  the  cause,  and 
this  in  itself  would  amount  to  an  enormous  sum. 
But  aside  from  financial  support,  the  cooperation  of 
the  life  insurance  companies  was  of  special  value 
because  their  statistics  could  be  used  to  place  pro- 
hibition in  an  attractive  light  before  the  corporations 
of  the  country.  In  recent  years  a great  deal  of  time 
and  thought  has  been  given  to  increasing  the  effi- 
ciency of  our  industrial  life.  It  is  not  surprising  that 
alcohol  should  come  under  the  unfavorable  notice 
of  the  experts.  In  some  instances  it  was  unques- 
tionably increasing  the  cost  of  labor  by  depriving 
the  employer  of  services  for  which  he  had  paid 
and  to  which  he  was  justly  entitled.  In  addi- 
tion, there  was  some  waste  of  raw  material  through 
bad  workmanship.  All  this  could  be  traced  directly 
to  alcohol,  but  on  the  other  hand  there  were  no 
means  of  computing  its  benefits,  as  the  increased  effi- 
ciency due  to  a higher  standard  of  health  or  morals 
was  problematical.  The  efficiency  expert  is  seldom 


52  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

an  economist,  and  further,  he  has  to  depend  on 
others  for  technical  information.  It  is  not  surpris- 
ing, therefore,  that  he  was  able  to  see  only  one  side 
of  the  prohibition  question. 

On  account  of  our  great  natural  wealth,  American 
industries  are  growing  at  a rate  which  exceeds  the 
natural  increase  of  our  population.  This  country 
is  consequently  dependent  upon  immigration  for  a 
considerable  part  of  its  labor  requirements.  Dur- 
ing the  past  145  years  thirty-three  million  immi- 
grants have  entered  the  country.  In  1913,  the  last 
year  before  the  tide  of  immigration  was  interrupted 
by  the  Great  War,  the  net  increase  of  population 
from  foreign  sources  was  891,276.  In  1919,  the 
year  after  the  signing  of  the  armistice,  with  national 
prohibition  an  assured  fact,  this  increase  amounted  I 
to  only  20,790,  and  this,  too,  in  spite  of  the  unprece-  ' 
dented  rise  in  wages  and  the  fact  that  American  | 
taxes  are  largely  borne  by  the  capitalistic  class.  It 
was  not  until  it  became  apparent  that  national  pro- 
hibition could  not  possibly  be  enforced  that  immigra- 
tion began  to  resume  its  normal  flow. 

But  there  is  still  another  side  to  the  effect  of 
prohibition  on  the  labor  situation.  The  further  we 
descend  in  the  social  scale,  the  less  man  depends  for 
guidance  upon  reason  and  the  more  he  has  to  rely 
upon  his  instinct.  The  lower  animals,  if  left  to 
themselves,  can  trust  their  instinct  to  select  the  food 


THE  OTHER  PARTNERS 


53 


which  their  bodies  require.  It  is  only  when  man  or 
famine  interferes  that  we  find  malnutrition  in  our 
wild  or  domestic  animals.  Similarly,  the  laboring 
classes  under  normal  conditions  eat  and  drink  to 
restore  the  tissue  which  has  been  burned  up  in  bodily 
exercise.  Prohibition  deprived  them  of  a nourish- 
ment to  which  they  had  become  accustomed,  and  no 
amount  of  reasoning  on  the  part  of  those  who  did 
not  share  their  conditions  could  convince  them  that 
this  was  right.  Nor  were  all  affected  in  the  same 
way.  It  is  an  instructive  commentary  on  the  blun- 
dering fashion  in  which  the  matter  was  approached, 
that  the  efficiency  experts  apparently  did  not  know 
that  many  of  our  foreign  laborers  were  obtaining 
their  alcohol  in  wines  and  other  beverages  made  in 
their  own  homes.  This  was  especially  true  of  the 
Italians.  There  was  hardly  an  Italian  home  with 
any  ground  around  it  which  did  not  contain  its  little 
vineyard;  and  those  less  fortunate  were  often  sup- 
plied by  their  neighbors.  Interference  with  such  a 
system,  both  primitive  and  picturesque,  was  bound 
to  add  to  the  general  discontent;  and  even  a small 
dissatisfied  element  is  a dangerous  thing  in  these 
days  of  labor  unionism,  since  it  often  becomes  an 
effective  club  in  the  hands  of  a radical  leader.  All 
this  was  pointed  out  to  the  prohibitionists  by  the 
officers  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  and 
subsequent  events  have  justified  their  warning. 


54  the  eighteenth  AMENDMENT 

But  in  the  case  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company 
there  were  stronger  reasons  than  the  mere  increased 
cost  of  labor  for  joining  in  any  movement  which  had 
the  approval  of  the  American  Medical  Association. 

In  1901  the  Rockefellers  entered  the  medical  field- 
There  could  be  no  more  important  public  service 
than  that  for  which  the  Rockefeller  Institute  for 
Medical  Research  was  established.  It  was  with  a 
feeling  of  general  satisfaction  that  the  public  viewed 
this  enterprise  of  our  richest  citizen,  and  it  was  not 
through  any  fault  of  the  founder  that  the  under- 
taking failed  to  fulfil  its  object.  The  institute  was 
handicapped  from  the  beginning  by  the  fact  that  it 
had  to  look  for  its  workers  amongst  establishments 
already  controlled  by  the  association  or  in  sympathy 
with  its  aims  and  methods,  and  thus  the  blight  which 
has  hung  over  medicine  throughout  the  country  was 
inevitably  introduced  into  the  new  foundation. 

While  little  has  been  accomplished  from  the  sci- 
entific standpoint,  the  union  of  these  two  interests 
has  been  a great  success  commercially.  The  Rocke- 
feller support  of  the  tenets  of  the  association  has 
aided  the  latter  materially  in  its  conflict  with  the 
newer  schools.  The  reports  of  the  institute  have 
been  valuable  propaganda  for  the  medical  organiza- 
tion. No  one  could  well  question  the  disinterested- 
ness of  these  reports,  and  yet  there  were  influential 
men  within  the  institution  who  were  able  to  guide  Its 


THE  OTHER  PARTNERS 


55 

activities  along  the  lines  best  suited  to  the  interests 
of  the  association. 

In  return,  the  association  has  put  the  stamp  of  its 
approval  on  the  petroleum  laxatives  manufactured 
by  the  Standard  Oil  Company.  These  products  sell 
for  four  times  the  price  petroleum  brings  for  illumi- 
nating purposes.  But  the  use  of  mineral  oil  and 
other  laxatives  has  been  condemned  both  by  the 
physicians  of  health  and  the  chemotherapists  as  a 
worthless  and  dangerous  practice.  If  Mr.  Rocke- 
feller’s scientists  had  by  any  chance  communicated 
to  the  officers  of  his  company  the  plans  to  discredit 
the  newer  schools,  they  could  scarcely  have  proved 
objectionable  to  the  sales  management  of  the  Stand- 
ard Oil  Company.  Nor  could  any  individual — cer- 
tainly not  Mr.  Rockefeller  himself — be  blamed  for 
this  condition  of  affairs.  It  is  the  system  which  is  at 
fault.  To-day  the  science  of  medicine  is  an  open 
book  to  the  initiated,  but  through  a com- 
plicated system  of  technical  terms  and  hiero- 
glyphics it  has  been  made  a mystery  to  the  lay- 
man, a mystery  as  fascinating  and  sometimes  as 
misleading  as  the  fairy  tales  of  our  childhood. 
The  management  of  a great  corporation  is 
carried  on  through  a series  of  departments  and  the 
responsibility  is  divided,  from  the  president  or  chair- 
man of  the  board  down  to  the  lowest  clerk.  It  was 
sufficient  for  the  officials  that  Mr.  Rockefeller  was 


56  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT  \ 

willing  to  back  this  charitable  enterprise.  They 
trusted  to  a business  acumen  which  until  then  had 
never  been  at  fault.  Nor  are  his  scientists  to  blame. 
The  system  of  medical  education  in  the  United  States 
reaches  down  to  the  primary  schools.  If  a man  is 
forced  to  wear  red  or  blue  glasses  from  boyhood,  he 
is  apt  to  become  color  blind. 

And  so  we  find  a collection  of  associations  and 
corporations  whose  interests  were  all  closely  allied. 
Yet  it  were  foolish  to  assert  that  prohibition  was  the 
result  of  an  arch  conspiracy,  although  there  was 
much  plotting  and  planning  within  the  organizations 
themselves.  Each  of  these  interests  was  probably 
going  quietly  along,  minding  its  own  business,  like 
cattle  grazing  contentedly  on  a wide  plain.  Then 
somebody  started  something,  and  the  stampede  came 
off. 

And  what  about  the  Anti-Saloon  League?  A 
very  interesting  sidelight  on  the  part  played  by  this 
organization  has  recently  been  disclosed.  It  seems 
that  when  certain  prominent  citizens  of  Georgia 
decided  that  for  political  reasons  the  state  must 
'become  dry,  they  encountered  the  opposition  of  the 
league’s  representatives.  For  years  these  men  had  I 
been  living  on  prohibition.  Time  after  time  the  j 
law  had  been  brought  to  the  point  of  passing,  only  j 
to  be  held  over  for  a future  legislature  because  they 
feared  that  with  prohibition  the  services  of  the 


THE  OTHER  PARTNERS 


SI 


league  would  no  longer  be  needed.  When  the  new 
interests  took  charge  of  the  national  movement,  the 
Anti-Saloon  League  was  assigned  to  a place  which 
it  could  fill  to  the  advantage  of  the  cause,  but  in 
which  the  Georgia  fiasco  would  not  be  repeated. 
The  last  days  of  Demon  Rum  resembled  a tiger 
hunt  in  the  jungles  of  India ; the  Anti-Saloon  League 
were  the  beaters.  The  organization  was  well 
equipped  to  play  the  role.  Men  of  the  stamp  of 
William  H.  Anderson,  Pussyfoot  Johnson,  William 
Jennings  Bryan,  R.  P.  Hobson  of  Merrimac  fame, 
and  Wayne  B.  Wheeler,  the  cock-horse  of  the  Vol- 
stead Committee,  could  be  depended  on  to  supply 
the  noise.  But  the  men  with  the  guns  loaded  with 
silver  bullets  represented  those  interests  which  had 
something  more  at  stake  than  simply  removing  the 
curse  of  alcoholism  from  the  weakling. 

If  there  is  still  any  doubt  in  the  mind  of  the  reader 
as  to  the  real  power  behind  the  prohibition  move- 
ment, let  him  examine  the  foreword  written  by 
Professor  Irving  Fisher  for  Dr.  Fisk’s  book 
“Alcohol — Its  Relation  to  Human  Efficiency  and 
Longevity.”  The  following  is  a brief  extract : 

“Many  things  are  now  known  concerning  the 
effects — physiological,  psychological  and  social — 
of  alcohol,  which  were  not  known  a few  years 
ago ; and  there  is,  consequently,  a growing  desire 


58  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

on  the  part  of  men  of  affairs  to  learn  the  exact 
facts  and  to  make  use  of  this  knowledge  in  their 
business.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  the  chief 
driving  force  to-day  toward  temperance  and  total 
abstinence,  whether  voluntary  or  enforced,  is  an 
economic  force — the  constant  urge  toward  indus- 
trial efficiency.  It  is  this  new  force  which,  added 
to  forces  previously  at  work,  has  in  recent  years 
caused  the  tidal  wave  of  prohibition  to  sweep  over 
this  country.” 


CHAPTER  X 


SOME  PROHIBITION  PROPAGANDA 

It  may  be  only  a coincidence,  but  the  fact  is  never- 
theless worth  recording,  that  Dr.  Fisk’s  book  on 
alcohol,  the  resolution  of  the  American  Medical 
Association  denouncing  alcohol,  and  the  association’s 
condemnation  of  the  chemotherapists,  appeared 
within  a few  days  of  one  another  in  the  summer  of 
1917.  Dr.  Fisk’s  book  presents  the  life  insurance 
companies’  case  against  alcohol.  It  is  possibly  the 
most  ambitious  presentation  of  the  prohibition  ques- 
tion from  this  standpoint.  It  has  the  endorsement 
of  many  prominent  members  of  the  American  Med- 
ical  Association  sitting  on  the  Hygiene  Reference 
Board  of  the  Life  Extension  Institute. 

Dr.  Fisk’s  writings  did  much  to  further  the  cause 
of  prohibition.  They  acquired  a wide  circulation — 
many  of  his  chapters  having  previously  appeared  in 
the  form  of  magazine  articles.  They  may  therefore 
be  considered  as  typical  examples  of  prohibition  prop- 
aganda. The  book  itself  is  more  of  a compilation 
than  an  individual  effort.  The  author  seems  to  have 
taken  the  prohibition  arguments — many  of  them 

59 


6o  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


manufactured  in  the  laboratory,  away  from  actual 
living  conditions — at  their  face  value,  and  to  have 
passed  them  on  to  his  readers  without  any  attempt 
to  analyze  them.  It  is  not  so  much  what  Dr.  Fisk 
has  said  as  what  he  has  left  unsaid  that  brands  many 
of  these  representations  as  the  rankest  sophistry. 
For  example,  under  the  heading  of  “Alcohol  and 
Resistance”  we  find: 

“Fillinger  found  the  resistance  of  the  red  blood- 
cells  much  reduced  after  administration  of  cham- 
pagne to  healthy  human  subjects,  and  similar  re- 
sults were  found  in  dogs  and  rabbits.  Weinberg 
confirmed  these  results  by  similar  methods,  show- 
ing that  20  per  cent,  of  the  red  cells  lose  their  re- 
sistance after  the  administration  of  450  cubic  cen- 
timetres of  champagne.” 

Here  is  a direct  accusation  against  alcohol  and 
a very  serious  one,  for  antibody  formation,  the 
body’s  natural  defence  against  disease,  is  dependent 
on  the  health  of  the  cells. 

Champagne  contains  about  13  per  cent,  of  alcohol. 
If  it  were  the  alcohol  in  this  beverage  which  caused 
the  injury  to  the  red  blood-cells,  we  might  reasonably 
expect  a similar  result  from  other  wines  or  malt 
liquors  in  proportion  to  their  alcoholic  content.  As 
this  is  not  the  case,  we  must  look  further  for  the 
harmful  effect  of  champagne.  Now  champagne 


SOME  PROHIBITION  PROPAGANDA  6i 


contains  a deadly  poison,  carbon  dioxide  (CO2)  or 
carbonic  acid  gas.  There  is  probably  more  of  this 
gas  In  champagne  than  in  any  other  beverage.  Any 
little  chorus  girl  along  Broadway  will  tell  you  that 
the  popular  name  for  the  popular  wine  is  “bubbles.” 
If  we  turn  to  our  chemistry  we  find: 

A rose  placed  in  a glass  bulb  from  which  the  air 
is  removed  while  CO2  is  introduced  will  lose  its 
color  at  once. 

An  animal  introduced  into  an  atmosphere  of 
pure  CO2  dies  almost  instantly  and  without  en- 
trance of  the  gas  Into  the  lungs,  death  resulting 
from  spasm  of  the  glottis  (ventricle  of  the  larynx) 
and  consequent  apnoea  (absence  of  respiration). 

An  animal  will  die  rapidly  in  an  atmosphere 
composed  of  21  per  cent.  O (oxygen),  59  per  cent. 
N (nitrogen),  and  20  per  cent.  CO2  by  volume; 
but  It  will  live  for  several  hours  in  an  atmosphere 
whose  composition  is  40  per  cent.  O,  37  per  cent. 
N and  23  per  cent.  CO2.  When  present  in  large 
proportion,  CO2  produces  Immediate  loss  of  mus- 
cular power,  and  death  without  a struggle;  when 
more  dilute,  a sense  of  Irritation  of  the  larynx, 
drowsiness,  pain  in  the  head,  giddiness,  gradual 
loss  of  muscular  power,  and  death  In  coma.* 

* “The  Medical  Student’s  Manual  of  Chemistry” ; Witt- 
aus,  pp.  355-6. 


62  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


This  is  the  reason  for  the  seriousness  of  the 
“champagne  jag.”  If  Dr.  Fisk  has  forgotten  his 
chemistry,  was  there  no  one  on  the  Hygiene  Refer- 
ence Board  who  could  have  brought  these  elementary 
facts  to  his  attention?  The  doctor  tells  us  in  his 
preface  that  “The  Board  was  practically  unanimous 
in  endorsing  the  author’s  presentation  of  the  evi- 
dence, only  a few  members  dissenting.” 

Here  is  another  example. 

The  prohibitionists  have  endeavored  to  create  the 
impression  that  alcohol  is  one  of  the  chief  causes  of 
insanity.  Dr.  Fisk  says,  “Psychopathic  conditions 
(i.e.  those  relating  to  mental  disease),  including 
excessive  or  palpably  injurious  indulgence  in  alcohol, 
developing  after  the  ‘risks’  had  been  on  the  books 
(of  the  life  insurance  companies)  must  be  accepted 
in  the  main  as  a charge  against  so-called  moderate 
drinking.  They  are  quite  as  much  a possible  effect 
of  moderate  drinking  as  any  of  the  many  other  path- 
ological conditions  that  are  known  to  result  from 
steady  drinking,  such  as  cirrhosis  of  the  liver,  fatty 
liver,  or  kidney  affections,  or  the  various  forms  of 
nervous  disease  or  life-failure  that  may  result  from 
the  psychic  disturbances  due  to  alcohol.”*  This  is 
all  in  a piece  with  the  statement  of  the  prohibition- 
ists which  was  circulated  in  the  public  press,  that 

* “Alcohol — Its  Relation  to  Human  Efficiency  and  Lon- 
gevity” ; Fisk,  pp.  49,  50. 


SOME  PROHIBITION  PROPAGANDA  63 

“the  intemperate  use  of  alcohol  is  filling  our  insane 
asylums,  jails,  poorhouses  and  cemeteries.”  Let  us 
see  how  near  the  truth  these  assertions  are. 

The  total  number  of  insane  patients  admitted  to 
our  hospitals  in  the  year  1910,  according  to  the 
figures  of  the  Census  Bureau,*  was  60,700.  Of 
these,  6,122,  or  10.7  per  cent.,  were  suffering  from 
alcoholic  psychosis.  Careful  investigations  showed 
! that  out  of  a total  of  25,000,000  males  who  used 
alcoholic  beverages,  about  5000,  or  one-fiftieth  of 
one  per  cent.,  developed  alcoholic  insanity  annually. 
This  is  the  basis  for  the  statement  that  “alcohol  is 
filling  our  insane  asylums.”  A further  examination 
of  these  statistics  showed  that  in  a great  many  in- 
stances alcoholism  was  not  the  cause  but  merely  a 
symptom  of  some  inherent  mental  defect,  either 
congenital  or  acquired.  Dr.  William  A.  White, 
superintendent  of  the  government  hospital  for  the 
insane  (St.  Elizabeth’s  Hospital)  at  Washington, 
D.  C.,  says  in  his  paper  on  the  subject,  presented  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Society  for  the  Study  of  Inebriety : 

“Is  alcohol  in  these  cases  only  a symptom  of 
some  underlying  fundamental  condition  which  has 
escaped  our  notice,  simply  because  it  is  too  subtle 
to  be  seen  by  casual  observation  or  found  by  ordi- 
nary methods  of  inquiry?  I think  it  is,  and  my 

*The  figures  for  the  1920  census  are  not  yet  available. 


64  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

attention  was  first  attracted  to  this  possibility 
many  years  ago.  Some  of  you  at  least  will  re- 
member the  work  of  the  English  hereditarian,  G. 
Archdall  Reid,  ‘Darwinism  and  Race  Progress,’ 
in  which  the  author,  who,  I may  remind  you,  has 
since  written  many  able  and  learned  works,  under- 
took a statistical  study  of  the  effects  produced  by 
prohibition  in  several  of  our  prohibition  states, 
where  prohibition  statutes  had  been  in  operation 
for  a considerable  number  of  years.  His  con- 
clusions were  no  less  striking  than  unexpected  at 
that  time.  They  were  to  the  effect  that  the  sta- 
tistics clearly  indicated  that  in  these  states,  as  the 
consumption  of  alcohol  had  been  diminished  and 
as  drunkenness  had  been  lessened,  the  admission  ' 
to  the  insane  asylums  and  poorhouses  had  pro- 
gressively and  correspondingly  increased.  If  we 
do  not  instantly  discard  such  a conclusion  as  this, 
and  will  stop  for  a moment  and  give  it  careful ) 
consideration,  we  must  be  struck  by  the  probability  ! 
of  its  truth  and  by  its  important  social  significance,  i 
Such  a conclusion  can  only  mean  that  the  alcoholic  : 
as  such  is  a mental  defective  in  some  way,  and  that  , 
if  his  mental  deficiency  does  not  show  as  indul-  ; 
gence  in  alcohol,  it  will  later  show  as  a frank  I 
mental  disease,  or  as  that  type  of  deficiency  which  | 
leads  to  pauperism.  i 

“This  conclusion,  I am  convinced,  is  a correct  , 


SOME  PROHIBITION  PROPAGANDA  6s 

one,  and  I am  reminded  as  I dictate  these  words 
of  the  occasion  of  a meeting  of  your  society  here 
I at  Washington  some  two  or  three  years  ago  in 
I which  I heard  your  president,  a man  grown  old 
in  this  particular  work,  say  in  discussion  that  he 
i had  never  seen  an  inebriate  who  aside  from  his 
! inebriety  was  a normal  man.” 

! 

But  the  most  convincing  evidence  of  the  fallacy  of 
j Dr.  Fisk’s  statement  is  furnished  by  the  figures  of 
' the  Census  Bureau.  These  statistics  show  that  in 
I 1910  wet  Nebraska  had  the  lowest  insanity  rate  of 
any  state  in  the  Union,  while  dry  Oklahoma  had, 
with  the  exception  of  Colorado  and  Nevada,  the 
highest  rate.  In  Maine,  the  banner  prohibition  state, 
the  number  of  insane  persons  increased  from  92.6 
per  100,000  in  1890  to  169.5  100,000  in  1910, 

a gain  in  the  wrong  direction  of  83  per  cent,  for  the 
twenty  year  period.  In  Kansas,  another  prohibition 
state,  the  insanity  rate  increased  94  per  cent.  Wet 
I Rhode  Island,  on  the  other  hand,  showed  a gain  of 
only  16  per  cent,  during  the  same  period. 

So  far  as  suicidal  insanity  is  concerned.  Dr.  John 
P.  Davin,  of  New  York,  summed  up  unfettered  med- 
ical opinion  on  the  figures  since  prohibition  went 
into  effect,  and  placed  the  responsibility  in  the  right 
place.  Here  is  his  letter  to  the  press  :* 

* See  the  New  York  World  for  August  15,  1921. 


66  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


“That  suicides  have  more  than  doubled,  not  in 
a year,  as  you  state,  but  in  half  a year,  according 
to  the  figures  of  the  Save-a-Life  League,  is  not  to 
be  attributed  to  a suicide  wave.  Neither  is  it  to 
be  attributed  to  a reaction  of  the  war,  to  business 
depression  or  to  loss  of  work. 

“In  a previous  report  of  the  Save-a-Life  League 
the  effects  of  prohibition  and  drug  laws  were  em- 
phasized as  a factor  in  the  increase  which  was 
note^  by  the  society  at  that  time  also. 

“Anyone  at  all  familiar  with  the  physical  con- 
ditions associated  with  the  use  of  alcohol  or  nar- 
cotic drugs  knows  that  the  deprivation  of  either  is 
followed  by  a depression  that  speedily  deepens  into 
a contempt  for  life.  This  does  not  necessarily 
mean  the  abuse  of  these  agents  by  those  addicted 
to  their  use.  . . . Crusades  have  been  entered 
upon  by  the  government,  urged  on  by  lay  agents 
having  no  realization  of  the  physical  effects  of 
their  actions,  but  who  are  carried  away  solely  by 
an  enthusiasm  for  the  moral  regeneration  which  is 
to  follow  their  reforms.  To  what  an  extent  this 
has  been  carried  on  in  this  country  is  shown  by  | 
the  legislative  struggle  now  going  on  in  Congress  i 
to  prohibit  a physician  from  prescribing  a bottle  i 
of  ale  or  beer  for  the  sick  or  aged.  No  wonder  j 
suicides  are  increasing  here  as  they  are  nowhere  | 
else  unafilicted  with  this  form  of  legislation.” 


SOME  PROHIBITION  PROPAGANDA  67 

Probably  the  most  one-sided  of  all  Dr.  Fisk’s 
prohibition  “arguments”  is  his  distortion  of  the  re- 
ports of  investigators  as  to  the  effect  of  alcohol  on 
human  efficiency.  He  has  devoted  considerable  space 
to  tests  made  in  the  Nutrition  Laboratory  at  Boston 
and  to  the  experiments  of  German  scientists,  all  of 
which  tend  to  show  a lowered  efficiency  in  the  worker 
when  alcohol  is  taken  even  in  small  doses.  The  fol- 
lowing is  a typical  quotation : 

“Aschaffenberg  found  that  moderate  doses  of 
alcohol  lowered  the  amount  of  work  done  by  print- 
ing compositors  and  increaised  the  liability  to 
error.” 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  other  side  of  the  story.  A 
piece  of  machinery  can  be  kept  in  operation  for  a 
long  time  without  rest  or  repair,  but  eventually  it 
must  be  stopped  and  overhauled  or  it  will  go  to 
pieces.  The  human  machine  can  operate  for  a short 
time  only  without  rest  or  relaxation.  But  when  the 
body  has  become  relaxed,  from  whatever  cause,  its 
productive  efficiency  is  temporarily  impaired,  of 
course.  Yet  such  relaxation,  whether  it  begins  with 
the  nervous  system  under  the  influence  of  alcohol, 
or  in  some  other  way,  is  a necessary  preliminary  to 
renewed  efficiency.  When  the  system  is  strained  by 
too  great  effort,  alcohol  helps  materially  to  induce 
relaxation.  The  highest  form  of  relaxation  is  sleep. 


68  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


If  these  laboratory  tests  had  been  made  wHle  the 
subject  was  under  the  influence  of  sleep  they  would 
have  been  considered  a joke.  They  are  ao  less  a 
joke  from  the  scientific  standpoint  because  they  have 
been  made  to  seem  specious  to  those  unfam  liar  with 
simple  logical  principles. 

The  impression  we  get  from  all  this  is  that  the 
author  depended  for  the  success  of  his  “arguments” 
on  the  Ignorance  of  his  readers.  It  is  by  arguments 
such  as  these  that  the  dry  party  has  attempted  to 
make  prohibition  appear  attractive  or  at  least  rea- 
sonable to  the  public.  The  other  side  of  the 
question  has  never  been  presented.  Let  us  therefore 
review  the  life  insurance  companies’  case  against 
alcohol  and  see  what  they  have  found  it  expedient 
to  leave  unsaid. 


CHAPTER  XI 


ALCOHOL  AND  LONGEVITY 

The  interests  of  a nation  and  an  Individual  citizen, 
or  group  of  citizens,  are  not  always  identical.  Lon- 
gevity is  distinctly  a case  in  point.  It  may  be  expe- 
dient for  the  welfare  of  a nation,  or  even  absolutely 
necessary  for  its  continued  existence,  that  the  lives  of 
some  of  its  citizens  be  sacrificed.  Many  of  our 
countrymen  voluntarily  offered  their  lives  for  the 
national  cause  in  the  Great  War.  If  they  carried  a 
life  insurance  company’s  policy,  they  had  to  pay  an 
extra  premium  for  the  privilege  of  being  patriotic. 
This  may  have  been  merely  fair  to  the  other  policy 
holders,  but  it  was  not  in  accordance  with  the  wel- 
fare of  the  nation  as  a whole.  Such  conflicts  of 
interests  will  be  found  in  the  pursuits  of  peace  as 
well  as  in  the  exigencies  of  war. 

We  have  only  to  study  the  personal  history  of 
some  of  our  industrial  leaders  to  see  the  fallacy  of 
applying  the  Insurance  companies’  theories  on  lon- 
gevity to  our  national  life.  There  are  many  men, 
well  known  In  our  banking  and  commercial  circles, 
who  can  still  look  back  and  recall  with  affection  one 

69 


70  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

of  the  principal  figures  of  their  early  business  expe- 
rience. They  see  a little  man  seated  at  a table 
before  a soft  coal  fire  in  a sunny  room  in  the  financial 
district,  a sandwich  in  one  hand,  a pencil  in  the  other, 
working  out  some  problem  which  could  not  be  de- 
layed for  culinary  comforts.  Trained  from  boyhood 
in  the  school  of  our  great  merchants  in  the  days 
when  the  clipper  ships  still  thrust  their  bowsprits 
across  the  streets  on  the  river  front,  before  the 
telephone  and  the  typewriter  had  simplified  business 
correspondence,  when  night  work  was  often  the  rule 
rather  than  the  exception,  he  had  acquired  habits  of 
industry  which  he  was  never  willing  to  forsake,  even 
under  the  pressure  of  failing  health.  If  work  was 
to  be  done,  it  mattered  little  when  it  was  completed, 
and  he  often  worked  until  midnight.  It  is  industry 
such  as  this  that  wins  success.  He  was  one  of  our 
dominant  constructive  men. 

He  built  up  America’s  leading  company  in  a basic 
industry.  He  endowed  colleges,  founded  churches 
and  educational  institutions.  If  a friend  needed 
assistance,  he  was  always  ready  to  leave  his  own 
multitudinous  affairs  and  give  sage  counsel  or 
material  help.  Yet,  from  the  insurance  companies’ 
standpoint,  his  life  was  a failure  because  he  literally 
wore  out  his  body  before  its  allotted  time.  Which, 
think  you,  is  the  better  citizen  or  of  more  value  to 
the  nation,  a man  such  as  this,  or  the  man  who  lives 


ALCOHOL  AND  LONGEVITY  71 

his  eighty  or  ninety  years  in  comparative  idleness 
and  dies  in  the  poorhouse? 

There  are  occasions,  after  great  physical  or  mental 
effort,  when  the  body  calls  for  alcohol.  Perhaps  if 
we  could  rest,  “lay  off”  for  a day  or  two  as  advised 
by  the  physicians  of  health,  spend  the  time  in  bed  if 
need  be,  the  body  would  make  its  own  repairs  and 
we  should  be  the  better  for  it.  But  this  is  not 
always  possible  in  our  business  life.  A man  may  not 
be  able  to  leave  his  affairs  in  charge  of  his  clerks. 
A banker  or  a broker  on  the  floor  of  the  Exchange 
would  laugh  at  the  idea  of  deserting  his  partners  in 
time  of  emergency  because  his  nervous  system  was 
overstrained.  Instead,  he  was  accustomed  to  steady 
his  nerves  with  a cocktail,  “take  a bracer”  as  he 
called  it,  and  thus  stimulate  digestion  for  his  evening 
meal,  so  that  he  would  be  able  to  sleep  at  night  and 
“go  at  it  again”  the  next  day.  Alcohol  has  been 
likened  in  such  cases  to  the  whip  which  kills  a tired 
horse.  It  is  not  the  whip  that  kills,  but  the  pace.  And 
so,  if  we  could  analyze  the  life  insurance  statistics,  we 
should  find  in  many  instances  that  it  was  not  the 
alcohol  which  shortened  life,  but  the  over-exertion 
which  it  makes  possible.  This  may  be  an  abuse  of 
alcohol,  but  it  is  not  the  abuse  of  the  temperance 
lecturer.  The  question  arises.  Has  the  individual  a 
right  to  use  his  own  judgment  in  these  matters  ? He 


72  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

may  make  mistakes,  of  course.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  may  not. 

Nature’s  ways  are  not  the  ways  of  civilization. 
When  she  made  alcohol  it  was  perhaps  without  pre- 
vision of  the  manifold  changes  which  civilization 
would  effect  in  our  mode  of  life.  Alcohol  may  not 
invariably  fit  these  changes,  but  that  is  surely  no 
reason  for  depriving  mankind  of  a vital  gift. 

We  can  sometimes  get  a clearer  view  of  a subject 
if  we  look  at  it  from  a new  angle.  I have  spent 
many  a pleasant  hour  wandering  over  the  hills  of 
New  England.  Recently,  on  the  crest  of  a heavily 
wooded  hillside,  I found  the  mark  of  the  last  furrow 
turned  by  a plow  on  what  had  once  been  cultivated 
land,  in  the  days  before  the  youth  of  New  England 
set  out  to  find  their  fortunes  in  the  prairie  states  of 
the  Middle  West.  New  England  is  full  of  aban- 
doned farms.  It  is  an  Interesting  study  to  see  how 
nature  reclaims  the  worn-out  pastures  and  restores 
to  its  virgin  fertility  the  soil  which  man  has  robbed 
of  its  plant  food  until  it  will  no  longer  bear  a profit- 
able crop.  First,  a carpet  of  weeds  and  rough 
grasses  is  spread  upon  the  land,  then  come  the  briars 
and  bushes,  the  sumacs,  and  the  weeds  of  the  forest, 
the  white  birch.  Every  leaf  that  falls,  every  root 
that  dies,  is  adding  its  mite  of  plant  food  to  the 
renewed  fertility  of  the  mold.  And  now  the  young 
forest  trees  spring  up  where  the  soil  is  strong  enough 


ALCOHOL  AND  LONGEVITY  73 

to  bear  them,  growing  with  ever  increasing  vigor 
and  crowding  off  their  weaker  neighbors  until  a 
forest  again  covers  the  hillside.  Autumn  after 
autumn  they  cast  their  leaves  upon  the  ground,  to 
be  packed  down  by  the  snows  of  winter  and  rot  when 
summer  returns.  Nature’s  process  is  perfect,  but 
it  may  take  a hundred  years.  It  is  too  slow  for  the 
husbandman.  He  employs  the  methods  of  civiliza- 
tion. He  stimulates  the  soil’s  flagging  powers  with 
a fertilizer  and,  if  his  crops  take  more  out  of  the 
soil  than  he  is  able  to  return,  he  will  tell  you  that  it 
is  his  land  and  he  has  the  right  to  do  with  it  as  he 
pleases.  No  one  would  think  of  blaming  him  for 
overworking  his  land  to  prevent  the  foreclosure  of  a 
mortgage  and  thus  save  the  roof  over  his  family’s 
head.  Yet  Dr.  Fisk’s  theories  condemn  the  business 
man  who  overworks  his  body  for  the  sake  of  his 
pressing  interests.  Shall  we  hold  up  to  scorn  such 
a man,  who  chooses  to  crowd  the  work  of  two  life- 
times into  the  productive  years  of  his  prime?  The 
question  is  as  old  as  Cicero’s  “De  Senectute” : shall 
we  measure  life  by  the  calendar  or  by  its  accom- 
plishments? 

After  all,  the  body  is  but  a human  machine  which 
will  wear  out  from  too  much  service,  like  those  made 
of  steel  and  brass,  or  which  will  rust  and  deteriorate 
from  neglect  and  imperfect  use.  No  doubt  it  might 
be  better  for  the  average  citizen  to  seek  a happy 


74  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


mean  of  safe  and  not  exhausting  effort.  But  man 
cannot  always  find  the  good  that  he  desires,  or  desire 
the  good  that  he  may  find.  It  is  often  necessary  for 
him  to  effect  a compromise  between  his  own  ten- 
dencies and  the  complex  requirements  of  civilization. 
If  alcohol  helps  him  to  do  this,  should  he  be  deprived 
of  a boon  which  nature  herself  has  furnished  ? 


CHAPTER  XII 


MORE  FALLACIOUS  PROPAGANDA 


The  life  insurance  companies’  statistics  feature  the 
“Occupational  Hazards  from  Alcohol.”  “Not  the 
least  important  feature,”  says  Dr.  Fisk,*  “of  the 
investigation  conducted  by  the  forty-two  companies 
was  the  mortality  figures  in  occupations  where 
alcohol  figured  as  a hazard.” 

These  figures  were  as  follows : 


Hotels 


Death-rate  above 
the  normal. 

Proprietors,  superintendents  and  man- 
agers not  tending  bar  35  per  cent. 

Proprietors,  superintendents  and  man- 
agers tending  bar  78  per  cent. 


Saloons  and  Billiard-Rooms, 

Pool-Rooms  and  Bowling-Alleys 
WITH  Bar 

Proprietors  and  managers  not  tending 

bar  82  per  cent. 

Proprietors  and  managers  tending  bar  73  per  cent. 

* “Alcohol- — Its  Relation  to  Human  Efficiency  and  Lon- 
gevity”; pp.  31-34. 


75 


76  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 
Breweries 

Proprietors,  managers  and  superinten- 
dents 35  per  cent. 

Clerks  30  per  cent. 

Foremen,  maltsters,  beer-pump  repair- 
men and  journeymen  52  per  cent. 

Distilleries 

Proprietors,  managers  and  superinten- 
dents below  normal  15  per  cent. 

Travelling  salesmen  and  collectors  for 
distilleries,  breweries  and  wholesale 
liquor  houses  (excluding  lifelong  total 
abstainers)  above  normal  28  per  cent. 

Wholesale  Liquor  Houses 

Proprietors  and  managers  22  per  cent. 

Clerks  12  per  cent. 

Restaurants  with  Bar 

Proprietors,  superintendents  and  man- 
agers not  tending  bar  52  per  cent. 

Waiters  in  hotels,  restaurants  and  clubs 

where  liquor  is  served  77  per  cent. 

“These  figures  indicate,”  Dr.  Fisk  says,  “that 
saloon-keepers  have  a death-rate  higher  than  that 
of  underground  mine  foremen;  that  brewery  fore- 
men, maltsters,  and  the  like,  have  a death-rate  higher 
than  electric  linemen,  glass-workers,  city  firemen 
(laddermen,  pipemen,  hosemen),  metal  grinders  or 
hot-iron  workers,  although  there  is  nothing  in  the 


MORE  FALLACIOUS  PROPAGANDA  77 

brewery  or  saloon  business  per  se  that  Is  at  all  haz- 
ardous or  unhealthful,  aside  from  the  possible  temp- 
tation to  drink  and  Its  collateral  hazards.  Proprie- 
tors of  distilleries  are  obviously  not  so  directly  ex- 
posed to  temptation  or  to  other  adverse  Influences 
that  obtain  in  the  retail  liquor  trade;  this  accounts 
for  the  favorable  mortality.” 

The  further  we  follow  these  life  insurance  statis- 
tics, the  more  we  are  apt  to  wonder  whether  any 
real  attempt  has  been  made  to  analyze  them.  Cer- 
tainly the  interpretation  which  is  here  given  to  them 
Is  not  In  accordance  with  scientific  facts.  There  is 
no  mystery  about  the  cause  of  premature  old  age, 
with  all  its  Infirmities  and  early  death.  Metchni- 
koff’s  work  In  this  particular  field  of  research  is 
well  known.  Unquestionably  his  greatest  contribu- 
tion to  medical  science  was  his  discovery  of  the 
function  of  the  white  corpuscles  of  the  blood.  But 
his  popular  fame  will  always  rest  upon  his  theories 
for  the  prolongation  of  human  life. 

It  is  nature’s  familiar  law  that  all  flesh  returns  to 
the  soil  from  which  it  came.  Nature’s  agents  of 
disintegration  are  the  putrefying  bacteria  which 
cause  flesh  to  decay.  The  activities  of  these  bacteria 
are  not  confined  to  the  dead  animal  body.  The  mi- 
nute organisms  are  in  the  air  and  are  taken  into  the 
system  with  our  food.  Under  favorable  conditions 
(for  the  bacteria)  the  Intestines  become  infested, 


78  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

with  the  result  that  there  is  putrefactive  fermenta- 
tion of  the  animal  and  vegetable  substances  in  proc- 
ess of  digestion.  Thus  toxins  are  formed  which  are 
absorbed  by  the  blood,  causing  a slow,  insidious 
poisoning  of  the  vital  organs  and  the  entire  system, 
until  finally  the  body  Is  forced  to  give  up  the  struggle 
long  before  its  allotted  time.  Metchnikoff  proved 
that  the  presence  or  absence  of  putrefaction  in  the 
large  Intestine  Is  the  chief  factor  that  affects  the 
duration  of  life.  Over  ninety  per  cent,  of  all  human 
ailments  are  directly  or  Indirectly  traceable  to  these 
intestinal  poisons,  or,  as  the  condition  is  commonly 
called,  auto-intoxication. 

Alcohol  is  contra-fermentative.  Vegetable  and 
animal  products  are  often  preserved  In  alcoholic 
liquors.  Therefore,  even  If  it  does  not  actually 
correct  the  fermentation.  It  could  In  no  way  add  to 
the  putrefaction  in  the  digestive  tract.  It  Is  quite 
evident  that  if  we  have  an  Increased  death-rate 
among  the  proprietors  of  saloons  of  82  per  cent., 
due  to  alcohol,  we  cannot  in  addition  attribute  90  per  j 
cent. — the  established  quota — to  auto-intoxication. 

A very  simple  arithmetical  calculation  will  demon- 
strate that  the  death-rate  would  be  72  per  cent, 
above  the  possible.  The  reader  must,  therefore, 
choose  between  the  theories  of  Dr.  Fisk  and  those  of 
Professor  Metchnikoff. 

A closer  inspection  of  the  figures  will  throw  fur-  , 


MORE  FALLACIOUS  PROPAGANDA  79 

ther  light  on  the  subject.  In  nearly  all  the  situations 
in  which  the  highest  death-rate  occurs,  we  find  that 
the  occupant  is  deprived  of  proper  exercise.  While 
everybody  is  subject  to  auto-intoxication,  It  is  far 
more  prevalent  amongst  those  who  lead  a sedentary 
life.  Nature’s  corrective  for  this  condition  is  exer- 
cise. By  invigorating  the  intestinal  tract,  this  In- 
duces a more  perfect  evacuation  of  the  waste  matter, 
and  the  toxemia  is  carried  off  through  the  pores  of 
the  skin  In  perspiration.  Exercise  in  which  the 
abdominal  muscles  are  brought  Into  play  Is  the  most 
effective. 

In  the  saloon  or  hotel  barroom  the  hours  were 
long.  In  many  of  our  cities  it  was  found  expedient  to 
regulate  the  hours  for  closing.  The  larger  barrooms 
employed  two  staffs  to  handle  the  night  and  day 
business.  But  in  a large  number  of  the  smaller 
places  this  could  not  be  afforded;  consequently  the 
proprietors,  managers  and  bartenders  remained  at 
their  desks  or  behind  the  bar  for  long  hours  at  a 
time.  I venture  to  believe  that,  if  the  truth  were 
known,  the  death-rate  among  bartenders  was  no 
higher  than  among  shop-girls  spending  the  same 
amount  of  time  day  In  and  day  out,  year  in  and  year 
out,  behind  the  ribbon  counter. 

We  also  find  a much  higher  mortality  among  pro- 
prietors and  employees  of  breweries  than  among  the 
same  class  of  Individuals  connected  with  distilleries. 


8o  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


The  death-rate  among  proprietors,  managers  and 
superintendents  of  distilleries  is  even  fifteen  per  cent, 
below  normal.  Malt  liquor  contains  from  three  to 
seven  per  cent,  alcohol,  distilled  liquor  about  fifty 
per  cent.  But  beers  also  contain  nitrogenous  nu- 
trients subject  to  fermentation,  and  the  alcoholic  con- 
tent is  too  low  to  have  any  appreciable  deterrent  ef- 
fect. No  less  an  authority  than  Dr.  Abraham  Jacobi 
maintained  that  alcohol  is  an  intestinal  antiseptic. 
If  this  is  true,  the  higher  the  alcoholic  content  the 
greater  the  protection  against  fermentation  and  con- 
sequent self-poisoning.  Of  course,  when  Dr.  Fisk 
says  “Proprietors  of  distilleries  are  obviously  not  so 
directly  exposed  to  temptation,”  he  is  simply  guess- 
ing. If  I also  should  hazard  a guess,  I should  say 
that  the  manufacture  of  whisky  was  lucrative,  and 
the  distillery-proprietor  could  afford  to  take,  and  did 
take,  sufficient  time  away  from  his  business  to  ride, 
shoot,  play  golf,  etc.,  and  so  keep  his  body  in  better 
physical  condition. 

It  is  easy  to  prove  almost  any  proposition  by 
figures,  if  one  is  careful  to  select  only  statistics  which 
support  the  contention.  What  is  the  effect  of  alcohol 
on  those  who  lead  an  active  life?  Here  are  some 
data  obtained  by  Dr.  Charles  E.  Woodruff,  surgeon 
with  the  rank  of  major  in  the  United  States  Army, 
from  the  observation  of  about  twenty-eight  hundred 
United  States  infantry  and  cavalry  on  active  duty  in 


MORE  FALLACIOUS  PROPAGANDA  8i 


the  Philippines  in  the  early  days  of  the  American 
occupation. 

“Approximately  ii  per  cent,  of  the  abstainers 
died,  while  about  per  cent,  of  the  moderate 
and  less  than  2 per  cent,  of  the  excessive  drinkers 
died.  About  15  per  cent,  of  abstainers  were 
invalided  home,  about  9 or  10  per  cent,  of  the 
moderate  and  about  8 per  cent,  of  the  excessive 
drinkers.  About  26  per  cent,  of  abstainers,  24 
per  cent,  of  moderate  and  24  per  cent,  of  excessive 
drinkers  deteriorated  in  health.  About  49  per 
cent,  of  abstainers,  64  per  cent,  of  moderate  and 
66  per  cent,  of  excessive  drinkers  retained  their 
health.  There  were  very  few  who  improved  in 
health  in  any  class,  but  the  percentage  among  the 
abstainers  was  a trifle  higher  than  among  the 
excessive  and  less  than  among  the  moderate 
drinkers.”  * 

On  his  return  from  the  islands.  Dr.  Woodruff 
published  his  conclusions  in  the  New  York  Medical 
Record  of  December  17,  1904,  from  which  the  fol- 
lowing is  taken: 

“In  1902  I obtained  a mass  of  data  as  to  the 
physical  condition  and  drinking  habits  of  a regi- 
ment of  infantry  which  had  been  about  three 
* “Medical  Ethnology”;  Woodruff,  p.  149. 


82  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


years  in  the  Philippines,  to  which  was  added  about 
two  troops  of  cavalry  of  about  fifteen  months’ 
service.  Each  company  commander  divided  his 
men  into  four  classes  as  to  health:  i.  those  who 
retained  health;  2.  those  who  deteriorated  in 
health;  3.  those  who  were  Invalided  home  for 
disease,  and  4.  those  who  died  of  disease.  The 
drinking  habits  of  each  man  were  also  given,  as 
I.  total  abstainers;  2.  moderate  drinker,  who  was 
never  drunk;  3.  excessive  drinker,  who  was  occa- 
sionally or  periodically  intoxicated.  I know  the 
figures  to  be  as  near  the  truth  as  it  is  possible  to 
make  them,  because  officers  gave  me  the  data,  and 
their  minor  personal  equations  were  neutralized. 

“I  must  confess  to  being  somewhat  disconcerted 
and  disheartened  at  first  by  the  totals;  the  exces- 
sive drinkers  were  far  healthier  than  the  abstain- 
ers, only  one-half  as  many  were  sent  home  sick, 
and  only  one-sixth  as  many  of  them  died.  I had 
hoped  to  prove  the  opposite.  . . . The  damage 
done  to  these  young  men  by  occasional  sprees  is 
not  so  great  as  the  damage  done  by  the  climate  to 
abstainers.  What  a lot  of  misstatements  have  we 
received  from  our  teachers,  text-books  and  au- 
thorities ! 

“I  suppose  some  medical  editors  would  advise 
hiding  these  figures  on  the  ground  that  they  would 
be  an  advantage  to  the  whisky  dealers  who  buy 


MORE  FALLACIOUS  PROPAGANDA  83 

Kansas  corn  from  prohibition  farmers.  They 
would  no  doubt  rather  see  our  soldiers  die  than  let 
them  know  that  a drink  of  wine  at  meals  might 
save  their  lives.”  (Truly  a prophecy  of  what 
was  to  occur  later  in  the  Army  camps  and  in  the 
United  States  Navy  during  the  Great  War.) 
“Think  of  the  statement  that  ‘the  claim  that  the 
use  of  alcohol  is  desirable  in  the  tropics  is  refuted 
beyond  the  possibility  of  discussion,’  (Boston 
Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  June  21,  1900),  a 
statement  for  which  there  is  no  basis  in  fact. 
There  are  no  figures,  statistics  or  trustworthy 
data  in  existence  upon  which  such  a statement 
could  be  based. 

“This  attitude  in  defence  of  current  opinion  is 
dangerously  near  to  the  old  one,  which  we  hoped 
had  disappeared  from  New  England  forever;  we 
can  almost  hear  the  echo  of  that  short  dark  period 
when  its  people  said,  ‘The  claim  that  there  are  no 
witches  is  refuted  beyond  the  possibility  of  dis- 
cussion.’ ” 

That  is  a valuable  contribution  to  the  subject,  by 
a man  clearly  more  interested  in  the  truth  and  bear- 
ing of  his  facts  than  in  clinging  to  preconceptions 
which  his  own  experience  has  proved  to  be  mistaken. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


THE  LABORATORY  VS.  NATURE 

There  are  many  things  which  we  have  learned  to 
use  and  enjoy  in  moderation,  such  as  alcohol  and 
other  foods  and  beverages,  fire  and  ice,  steam, 
electricity  and  various  familiar  agencies,  which  may 
become  sources  of  danger  if  allowed  to  get  beyond 
control.  Moderation  is  of  course  one  of  the  car- 
dinal rules  of  our  existence.  Too  much  of  a good 
thing  is  often  more  harmful  than  a little  of  what  is 
really  bad.  The  immoderate  use  of  alcohol  is  clearly 
detrimental  not  only  to  the  individual,  but  also  to 
society.  In  well-governed  communities  drunkenness, 
like  other  excesses,  is  taken  care  of  in  the  police 
courts  or  hospitals.  It  was  necessary  for  the  pro- 
hibitionist to  prove  that  even  the  moderate  use  of 
alcohol  was  harmful,  lest,  with  the  proper  enforce- 
ment of  existing  laws,  he  should  find  himself  in  the 
position  of  Don  Quixote,  tilting  at  his  windmills. 

In  recent  years  much  thought  and  study  have  been 
given  to  the  nourishment  of  the  body.  Many  foods, 
and  alcohol  among  them,  have  been  the  subjects  of 
careful  laboratory  examination  and  experimentation. 

The  prohibitionists  have  made  good  use  of  the  un- 

84 


THE  LABORATORY  VS.  NATURE  85 

favorable  side  of  these  experiments  to  further  their 
propaganda.  In  this  way  they  have  endeavored  to 
show  that  alcohol  is  not  a stimulant,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  a narcotic,  a depressant;  that  it  has  no 
food  or  medical  value,  but  is  a toxic  substance  and 
definitely  injurious,  even  when  used  in  moderation. 

The  following  comments  by  Professor  W.  S.  Hall 
will  serve  as  an  example  of  the  methods  adopted. 

“The  Energy  from  Alcohol  not  Avail- 
able.— Is  the  energy  liberated  in  the  oxidation  of 
alcohol  in  the  liver  available  for  the  use  of 
muscles,  nervous  system  or  glands?  If  this  ques- 
tion is  answered  affirmatively,  then  alcohol  is  a 
food.  If  negatively,  then  alcohol  is  not  a food. 

“All  body  oxidation  may  be  classified  in  two 
groups:  I.  Active  Oxidations,  which  take  place 
in  the  active  tissues,  muscles,  nervous  system  or 
glands, — and  take  place  incident  to  action.  Active 
oxidations  are  under  perfect  control  of  the  ner- 
vous system  and  are  proportional  to  normal  ac- 
tivity. 2.  Protective  Oxidations,  which  take  place 
in  the  liver.  This  class  of  oxidation-process  is 
wholly  independent  of  the  usual  tissue  activity, 
and  is  proportional  to  the  ingestion  of  toxic 
substances  and  independent  of  muscular  action, 
brain  action  or  gland  action  (other  than  liver 
action). 


86  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


“If  the  oxidation  of  alcohol  in  the  liver  belongs 
to  Class  I,  the  following  consequences  should  be 
found:  First,  the  ingestion  of  alcohol  would  lead 
to  an  Increased  muscular  power  and  an  increased 
capacity  for  brain  work,  and  increased  glandular 
activity.  Second,  the  ingestion  of  alcohol  would 
serve  to  maintain  body  temperature  in  the  healthy 
individual  subjected  to  low  external  temperature. 
Third,  the  increase  of  muscle,  brain  or  gland  ac- 
tivity would  be  proportional  to  the  amount  of 
alcohol  ingested.  Now  laboratory  observations 
and  general  experience  show  that  none  of  these 
things  is  true : that  is,  the  ingestion  of  alcohol 
decreases  muscle,  brain  and  gland  work  and  de- 
presses body  temperature  when  external  temper- 
ature is  low.  The  oxidation  does  not  therefore 
belong  to  Class  i. 

“If  the  oxidation  of  alcohol  in  the  liver  belongs 
to  Class  2,  the  following  consequences  would  be 
found : First,  the  Ingestion  of  alcohol  would  be 
followed  by  its  early  oxidation  in  the  organ  in 
question.  Second,  if  the  oxidation  capacity  of  the 
liver  is  limited  this  capacity  may  be  overloaded 
by  exceeding  the  physiological  limit  of  alcohol. 
Third,  if  the  oxidation  capacity  of  the  liver  is 
taxed  nearly  to  its  limit,  by  the  oxidation  of  the 
uric  acid  xanthins  and  other  toxic  substances,  the 
ingestion  of  alcohol  may  seriously  interfere  with 


THE  LABORATORY  VS.  NATURE  87 

this  protective  oxidation  by  overtaxing  the  ca- 
pacity. Fourth,  if  the  oxidation  capacity  is  over- 
taxed, an  excess  of  uric  acid,  xanthin  bodies,  and 
other  toxic  substances  will  get  by  this  portal  and 
reach  the  active  tissues  of  the  kidneys.  Now  all 
of  these  things  take  place,  so  we  are  forced  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  oxidation  of  alcohol  is  a 
protective  oxidation. 

“Alcohol  is,  therefore,  a toxic  substance  and  not 
a food  in  any  sense.” 

Propaganda  such  as  this  carries  weight  with  the 
, layman.  He  has  no  means  of  determining  the  truth 
I or  falsity  of  the  conclusions.  It  “listens  well,”  as 
I they  say.  Like  the  child’s  decalcomania,  it  brings 
out  a picture  where  before  there  was  only  a blank, 
and  if  in  the  picture  we  find  a purple  cow  or  a green 
cat,  his  untutored  mind  is  unable  to  detect  the  error. 

The  thought  which  the  prohibitionists  intend  to 
convey  Is  that  alcohol  being  a poison  Is  not  fit  for 
human  consumption.  Salt  also  is  a poison.  Salt 
poisoning  is  quite  common  among  our  domestic 
animals,  yet  salt  is  a necessary  part  of  our  diet. 
The  first  question  which  naturally  suggests  itself  is. 
If  alcohol  is  a poison,  why  is  It  produced  in  the  body? 

It  must  be  remembered  that  physiological  chemis- 
try is  still  in  swaddling  clothes.  Our  knowledge  of 
the  body’s  processes  is  very  limited  and  many  seem- 


88  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


ing  contradictions  occur.  Take,  for  instance,  the 
problem  of  the  gastric  juice. 

The  body  digests  its  food  by  the  aid  of  certain 
juices  in  the  digestive  organs.  These  juices  are 
powerful  enough  to  break  down  the  tissue  of  any 
flesh  with  which  they  may  come  in  contact.  Why, 
then,  are  they  not  dangerous  to  the  body  itself? 
Some  animals  devour  their  own  species.  A pack  of 
hungry  wolves  has  been  known  to  fall  upon  a 
wounded  comrade  and  completely  devour  it,  includ- 
ing its  digestive  apparatus.  If  the  gastric  juice  is 
strong  enough  to  break  down  tissue  of  the  digestive 
organs  of  another  creature,  why  does  it  not  have  the 
same  effect  upon  the  stomach  that  produces  it? 
Why  does  not  the  body  digest  itself?  The  problem 
may  seem  quite  formidable  until  we  consider  the 
great  resistance  of  the  living  cell.  It  is  this  resist- 
ance which  withstands  the  action  of  the  gastric  juice, 
as  it  withstands  the  toxic  effect  of  salt  and  alcohol 
when  properly  used.* 

* To  illustrate  the  great  vitality  of  the  living  cell,  it  may 
be  noted  that  laboratory  investigations  have  provided  a 
method  of  showing  that  the  life  of  the  tissues  may  be 
preserved  even  after  these  have  been  removed  from  the  body. 
Dr.  Carrel  has  demonstrated  {Journal  of  Experimental 
Medicine,  May  i,  1912)  that  by  washing  cultures  of  con- 
nective tissue  in  Ringer’s  solution  and  then  placing  them  in 
a new  medium  the  growth  was  accelerated,  senility  prevented 
and  the  duration  of  life  greatly  prolonged.  Some  of  the 


! THE  LABORATORY  VS.  NATURE  89 

t The  best  evidence  that  alcohol  is  necessary  to  the 
human  economy  is  the  fact  that  the  body  obtains  a 
supply  through  the  alcoholic  fermentation  of  sugar 
and  other  carbohydrates,  which  takes  place  in  the 
intestines.  The  digestive  process  separates  the  fit 
I from  the  unfit.  Alcoholic  fermentation  is  a purify- 
ing  process.  It  eliminates  much  that  is  harmful  in 
[ the  natural  fruit  juices,  A pure  light  wine  is  a 
j healthier  beverage  than  unfermented  grape  juice, 
i sweet  cider  or  the  fruit  juices  of  the  soda  water 
: fountain.  Many  of  the  arguments  which  the  pro- 
; hibitionists  use  so  freely  against  alcoholic  beverages 
could  be  applied  with  greater  consistency  against  the 
|i  so-called  temperance  drinks.  Anyone  who  has 
I W'atched  alcoholic  fermentation  in  light  wines  or  beer 
twill  probably  agree  that  it  were  better  to  have  this 
Take  place  outside  the  body  instead  of  in  the  vital 
i organs. 

Let  us  look  on  the  subject  from  nature’s  stand- 
i point.  The  most  primitive  forms  of  alcoholic  bev- 
I erages  are  the  wines  pressed  from  grapes,  apples  and 
■other  fruits.  In  our  forefathers’  time,  and  until 
I labor-saving  devices  in  manufacture  and  transporta- 
jition  had  commercialized  wine-making,  these  wines 
:j|Were  produced  in  the  homes  throughout  America. 

J|  cultures  were  living  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  month  of 
J;  their  life  in  vitro.  ( See  “The  Immortality  of  the  Cells  and 
; Tissues”:  Medical  Record^  May  ii,  1912.) 


90  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

The  harvest  feast  of  Thanksgiving  found  the  house- 
wife bringing  to  the  table  her  cider,  or  currant, 
blackberry  and  grape  wines,  along  with  the  turkey, 
the  mince  pies  and  other  evidences  of  her  culinary 
skill.  Cider-making  is  still  familiar  enough  to  most 
of  us,  so  that  we  may  observe  nature’s  guiding  hand 
in  the  process  and  see  how  she  has  planned  for  our 
welfare. 

Cider  is  made  from  the  juice  of  the  ripe  apple. 
The  same  juice  is  obtained  when  the  apple  is  eaten, 
but  the  fruit  contains  a lot  of  bulky  roughage  which, 
by  filling  the  stomach,  limits  the  amount  of  fresh 
juice  that  can  be  absorbed  in  this  way.  At  harvest 
time,  when  the  juice  is  first  pressed,  the  cider  is 
sweet.  But  here  again  nature  steps  in  to  prevent 
over-indulgence,  for  the  juice  remains  in  this  condi- 
tion only  until  fermentation,  which  begins  immedi- 
ately, has  done  its  work.  Man  has  been  able  to 
kill  the  germs  of  ferment  by  heating  or  by  the  intro- 
duction of  benzoate  of  soda  or  other  chemicals,  and 
thus  preserve  the  juice  in  its  unfermented  form 
throughout  the  year.  But  that  this  was  contrary 
to  nature’s  purpose  is  clearly  discernible  if  we  follow 
the  process  of  wine-making. 

Let  us  suppose  the  juice  has  been  pressed  and 
carefully  strained  and  that  we  have  a clear  sweet 
cider  (or  grape  must).  This  is  placed  in  a barrel. 
In  from  twenty-four  to  twenty-eight  hours  it  will 


THE  LABORATORY  VS.  NATURE  91 

commence  to  work  and  a frothy  mucilaginous  scum 
will  rise  in  a sticky  mass  through  the  bunghole. 
This  frothy  scum  will  be  filled  with  yeast  and  paren- 
chyma and  other  impurities.  This  is  the  first  effect 
of  fermentation  and  is  called  by  the  wine-makers 
“purging.”  It  is  followed  immediately  by  a less 
tumultuous,  effervescent  fermentation  with  a rise  in 
temperature,  which  continues  until  all  the  saccharines 
have  been  turned  into  alcohol. 

We  have  an  ocular  demonstration  of  nature’s 
efforts  to  purify  her  beverage  in  the  column  of  froth 
which  rises  through  the  bunghole.  When  fermenta- 
tion is  completed,  what  has  been  accomplished  is 
apparent  not  only  to  the  eyes  but  to  the  palate  also. 
The  reader  has  doubtless  often  noticed  the  dregs  at 
the  bottom  of  a bottle  of  wine  or  ale.  The  small 
percentage  of  impurities  to  be  found  in  a bottle  of 
wine  which  has  been  carefully  drawn  off  from  the 
cask  to  avoid  disturbing  the  liquid,  is  as  nothing  com- 
pared to  the  murky  mass  of  lees  deposited  at  the 
bottom  of  the  barrel  in  the  process  of  fermentation. 
And  these  are  in  addition  to  the  impurities  which 
are  purged  through  the  bunghole.  If  the  lees  are 
disturbed  the  wine  becomes  cloudy  and  bitter,  and  to 
drink  it  would  bring  on  intestinal  disturbances  which 
would  soon  convince  the  experimenter  that  the  whole 
juice  of  the  fruit  was  only  intended  by  nature  to  be 
partaken  of  at  harvest  time.  In  guarding  against 


92  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

over-indulgence  in  the  fruit  juices,  nature  has  com- 
pleted her  work  by  providing  the  matured  wine  with 
alcohol,  which,  by  causing  intoxication,  raises  the 
danger  signal  for  those  who  would  imbibe  too  freely. 

Let  us  hear  what  one  of  our  dietitians  has  to  say 
on  the  subject: 

“Alcohol  is  made  through  fermentation  and 
distillation,  and  both  these  processes  would  be 
impossible  without  sugar.  When  we  understand 
this,  we  find  that  we  can  make  alcohol  by  simply 
eating  sugar,  because  this  alkaline  substance  com- 
ing in  contact  with  the  hydrochloric  acid  of  our 
stomach,  ferments  quickly  and  causes  as  much 
stimulation  to  our  nerves  as  though  we  partook 
of  the  prefermented  article  in  the  shape  of  light 
beers  or  wines. 

“Everybody  is  familiar  nowadays  with  the 
usage  of  giving  sugar  to  soldiers  before  they  go 
into  battle,  or  of  giving  sugar  to  athletes.  But 
how  few  people  know  that  this  article  of  food 
is  given  to  these  people  because  it  creates  an  al- 
cohol which  is  taken  up  by  the  nervous  system 
more  quickly  than  the  prefermented  alcohol  in 
the  shape  of  wine  or  beer!  A good  pair  of  kid- 
neys eliminates  the  prefermented  article  very 
quickly,  not  so  the  fermenting  one. 

“A  simple  knowledge  of  how  wine  is  made 


THE  LABORATORY  VS.  NATURE  93 

will  explain  this  question  to  the  reader  more 
fully.  Wine  is  made  by  crushing  fruit,  vegetables 
or  grains,  and  allowing  the  natural  sugar  of  these 
foods  to  ferment.  In  order  to  hasten  the  process 
we  add  cane  sugar  and  water,  and  let  this  stand 
in  a warm  place  until  fermentation  has  brought 
to  the  surface  all  waste  products,  leaving  a clear, 
watery  fluid,  according  to  the  ingredients  of  which 
it  is  made. 

“The  alcohol  made  in  this  manner  is  concen- 
trated before  it  even  enters  the  stomach,  and 
through  its  very  density  is  eliminated  much  more 
quickly  than  when  we  depend  on  the  stomach  itself 
to  perform  the  process  of  fermentation.  The  tee- 
totaller, without  realizing  it,  creates  his  stimulant. 
Lacking  the  immediate  pleasing  effect  of  alco- 
holics, he  generally  turns  into  a dyspeptic  grouch 
— much  more  objectionable  than  his  friend  who, 
admitting  he  wants  a stimulant,  partakes  of  a glass 
of  beer  or  light  wine,  and  thereby  draws  his 
nervous  energy  to  his  stomach.  This  friend  might 
be  accused  of  a little  undue  conviviality,  but  cer- 
tainly he  becomes  more  human  than  his  grouchy 
sick  friend. 

“It  must  be  understood  that  I am  not  advocat- 
ing the  use  of  alcohol,  but  wish  rather  to  explode 
the  mistaken  notion  that  alcoholics  are  the  only 
stimulants.  Harm  comes  from  partaking  of  al- 


94  the  eighteenth  AMENDMENT 

cohol  in  moderation  only  when  the  function  of 
the  kidneys  is  impaired,  and  all  liquor  should 
be  excluded  from  the  dietary  in  such  cases.  But 
how  much  more  should  sugar  be  excluded ! 

“Sugar  is  present  in  all  fruits,  vegetables  and 
grains,  and  such  sugar  of  course  should  be  used. 
But  the  concentrated  sweetness  of  sugar  cane, 
figs,  dates  and  bananas  should  be  used  only  in 
moderation  because,  next  to  the  oxygen  we 
breathe,  sugar  is  the  strongest  stimulant  there  is. 

“Next  to  sugar,  alcohol  is  strongest  in  brandy 
and  whisky,  and  these  strong  liquors  should  also 
be  avoided,  leaving  for  consideration  the  light 
wines  and  beer.  The  latter  is  a liquor  originally 
brewed  in  Germany,  and  the  English  people,  brew- 
ing it  in  a slightly  different  manner,  manufacture 
ale  and  porter  instead.  The  foundations  of  these 
drinks  are  hops  and  malt.  The  latter  is  a product 
made  by  steeping,  drying  and  concentrating  grain, 
which  may  be  either  peas,  beans  or  wheat. 

“The  water  in  beer  is  distilled,  and  the  per- 
centage of  alcohol  is  so  small  that  it  cannot  be 
objected  to  by  anyone  who  thoroughly  under- 
stands the  manufacture  of  it.  Every  human  being 
has  his  idiosyncrasies,  and  there  are  people  whose 
kidneys  are  not  normal,  to  whom  beer  might  be 
harmful,  but  to  such  people  meat  and  sugar  are 


THE  LABORATORY  VS.  NATURE  95 

even  more  harmful,  and  the  discredit  should  not 
all  be  given  to  beer. 

“The  average  teetotaller  clothes  himself  with 
the  ‘mantle  of  righteousness’  because  he  doesn’t 
drink  alcoholic  stimulants.  Then  he  turns  into 
the  next  drug  store  to  have  some  soft  drink  or 
candies,  by  which  he  injures  himself  tenfold  as 
much  as  by  drinking  any  of  the  light  liquors. 

“Most  soft  drinks  are  flavored  with  syrups,  and 
I have  already  shown  how  we  manufacture  al- 
cohol in  our  stomachs  when  we  eat  sweets.  All 
sweets  turn  into  an  acid,  causing  fermentation. 
They  set  up  diseases  more  quickly  than  if  we 
were  to  partake  of  the  already  manufactured  al- 
coholic beverages  such  as  light  beer  and  wine.”  * 

That  alcohol  in  some  form  is  necessary  to  the 
human  system  cannot  be  doubted.  There  is  one  way 
and  one  way  only  by  which  prohibition  could  be 
accomplished,  and  that  is  by  tearing  down  and  re- 
building the  human  machine.  If,  as  science  has  been 
able  to  demonstrate,  this  machine  has  been  evolved 
through  countless  steps  of  evolution  from  a lower 
stratum  of  animal  life,  it  might  be  possible  through 
other  countless  steps  so  to  change  it  that  alcohol 
would  no  longer  be  essential  for  its  proper  function- 
ing. That  this  is  not  beyond  the  bounds  of  plausi- 
* “Triangle  of  Health”;  Arnold,  p.  129. 


96  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

bility,  we  have  as  evidence  the  other  earthly  crea- 
tures which  apparently  exist  in  health  and  vigor  with 
little  dependence  on  this  gift  of  nature.  The  lower 
we  descend  in  the  scale  of  animal  life,  the  less  re- 
quirement there  is  for  alcohol.  The  fish,  the  frog, 
the  lizard,  the  snalce  and  other  cold-blooded  crea- 
tures are  familiar  examples.  Yet  it  may  be  that 
alcohol,  like  oxygen,  is  one  of  the  immutable  essen- 
tials for  the  animal  kingdom.  At  any  rate,  no  animal 
capable  of  free  locomotion  can  dispense  with  it  al-  > 
together.  They  may  use  very  little,  but  some  they 
must  have.  Possibly  the  oyster  and  clam  are  com-  ( 
plete  abstainers  and  represent  the  ideals  of  prohibi- 
tion at  their  highest  point.  Yet  their  existence 
scarcely  commends  itself  as  a goal  for  human  aspira- 
tion. Whatever  evolution  brought  us  from,  we  have 
the  habit  of  preferring  to  go  forward  rather  than 
back.  We  are  content  to  follow  the  purposes  of 
Providence  so  far  as  we  can  glimpse  them.  And 
though  there  are  doubtless  some  zealous  reformers  | 
who  believe  that  if  they  had  the  directing  of  the  i 
universe  they  could  produce  a better  race  and  a 
better  world,  most  of  us  are  willing  to  take  creation 
as  we  find  it. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


THE  FOOD  VALUE  OF  ALCOHOL 

The  food  and  medical  values  of  alcohol  have  a 
very  close  relation  to  each  other.  Proper  nourish- 
ment is  the  foundation  of  health.  The  body,  by  its 
own  efforts,  is  able  to  overcome  disease  in  most 
instances,  if  it  can  obtain  and  assimilate  its  natural 
food. 

What  is  food?  Stedman’s  Medical  Dictionary 
gives:  “Food.  Anglo-Saxon  Foda,  aliment,  nour- 
ishment, what  is  eaten  to  supply  the  necessary  nutri- 
tive elements. — Nutritive.  Nutrition.  Latin 
Nutrire,  to  nourish.  A function  of  living  plants  and 
animals  consisting  in  the  taking  in  and  assimilation 
through  chemical  changes  (metabolism)  of  material 
whereby  tissue  is  built  up  and  energy  liberated;  its 
successive  stages  are  known  as  digestion,  absorption, 
assimilation,  and  excretion;  in  highly  organized 
animals  digestion  is  preceded  by  mastication  and 
deglutition,  and  excretion  is  effected  by  expiration, 
perspiration,  urination  and  defecation.”  These 
functions  are  carried  on  by  the  various  organs  of  the 
body,  under  the  control  of  the  nervous  system,  of 
which  the  brain  is  the  head. 

97 


9 8 THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

Foods  may  be  divided  into  two  classes:  those 
which  primarily  produce  tissue  and  energy,  and  those 
which  enable  the  organs  to  function.  This  is  a simple 
rather  than  a strictly  scientific  way  of  putting  the 
matter,  because  all  foods  serve  both  purposes.  But 
the  foods  in  the  first  class  go  more  directly  into  the 
production  of  tissue  and  energy,  while  those  in  the 
second  class  work,  in  a measure,  indirectly.  For 
example : Digestion  is  under  the  control  of  the  gas- 
tric! nerves.  Food,  producing  tissue  and  energy, 
also  creates  nerve  force — nerve  force  makes  possible 
digestion,  assimilation  and  elimination.  Foods  like 
alcohol,  by  their  effect  on  the  nervous  system,  aid 
assimilation  and  are  therefore  indirectly  assisting  in 
building  tissue  and  energy.  The  human  body  is 
often  likened  to  an  engine.  To  carry  the  simile 
further,  the  foods  of  the  first  class  may  be  regarded 
as  the  gas  or  steam  which  produces  the  driving  force, 
while  the  foods  of  the  second  class  are  the  oils  which 
effect  the  lubrication.  Of  these,  alcohol  is  the  most 
important.  To  deprive  the  body  of  its  necessary 
amount  of  alcohol  will  have  the  immediate  effect  of 
lowering  its  energy-producing  power.  Some  systems 
require  more  alcohol  than  others,  and  to  attempt  the 
artificial  regulation  of  this  necessity  because  it  some- 
times produces  intoxication,  is  about  as  sensible  as 
to  ask  the  motorist  to  give  up  the  use  of  lubricating 
oil  because  it  occasionally  works  into  the  cylinders. 


THE  FOOD  VALUE  OF  ALCOHOL  99 

In  infancy  the  body  obtains  its  supply  of  alcohol 
from  milk  sugar.  The  new-born  babe  begins  acquir- 
ing the  alcohol  habit  with  the  first  drop  of  milk  it 
takes  from  its  mother’s  breast- — -the  habit  of  manu- 
facturing alcohol  for  its  body’s  needs.  As  the  child 
develops,  more  alcohol  is  required,  and  a taste  for 
sweets  and  candies  develops.  The  need  for  alcohol 
is  never  more  plainly  demonstrated  than  at  this  stage 
of  our  existence.  The  healthy,  romping  child  eats, 
with  the  greatest  eagerness,  all  kinds]  of  cakes, 
candies,  ice  cream  and  other  sweets.  The  result  is 
an  exuberance  of  high  spirits  and  muscular  activity, 

' while  the  child  with  a weak  digestion,  who  must  of 
necessity  control  his  desire  for  sweets,  is  sickly  and 
, unable  to  play  and  romp  like  other  children. 

During  the  early  years  of  childhood  the  body, 
except  under  abnormal  conditions,  obtains  all  the 
' alcohol  it  requires  from  the  sugars  and  starches  of  its 
i:  daily  diet.  If  we  could  go  through  life  as  children, 
playing  and  exercising  without  restraint,  and  without 
!'  the  strain  of  labor  and  responsibility,  it  would  be  un- 
necessary to  add  to  our  alcohol  supply  by  other 
; means,  except  when  disease  or  some  unusual  occur- 
rence  made  it  advisable.  But  with  the  approach  of 
’ manhood,  with  its  duties  and  ambitions,  comes  an 
::  increased  demand  on  the  body,  and  the  alcohol  sup- 
I ply  must  be  increased. 

This  demand,  however,  does  not  come  to  all  alike. 

i 

I! 

li 


100  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


A Samson  or  a Sandow  can  lift  a hundredweight 
with  less  exertion  than  the  man  whose  muscles  are 
undeveloped.  In  the  same  way  the  brilliant  mind 
can  do  its  thinking  with  less  effort,  or  less  friction, 
than  one  more  sluggish;  and  while  the  latter  in  the 
end  may  perhaps  accomplish  just  as  much,  it  is  at 
the  expense  of  greater  labor  and  a greater  tax  on 
the  system.  Mental  effort  uses  up  more  nervous 
energy  than  physical  labor.  The  man  who  sits  at  a 
desk  all  the  time  is  often  more  tired  at  the  end  of 
the  day’s  work  than  the  laborer  in  the  fields.  There 
is  thus  a wide  variation  in  the  food  requirements  of 
different  individuals,  in  accordance  with  physical  and 
mental  development,  occupation  and  mode  of  life. 
Any  attempt  to  standardize  the  daily  diet  will  inevi- 
tably work  injustice  and  will  result  in  many  cases  of 
malnutrition  and  the  consequent  breeding  of  disease. 
Enforced  rationing  is  dangerous  at  its  best  because 
of  its  effect  on  the  nerves.  Let  us  follow  the  work- 
ing of  the  nerves  in  the  digestive  process  and  see 
why  alcohol  may  be  necessary  for  their  proper 
functioning. 

The  body  selects  its  food  by  the  senses,  and  their 
messages  are  transmitted  to  the  brain  by  the  nerves. 
The  sight  of  the  bright  red  apple,  the  smell  of  the 
savory  dish  of  bacon,  the  sweetness  of  the  lump  of 
sugar,  are  all  conveyed  to  the  brain  over  the  nerve 
telegraphs.  The  gustatory  and  olfactory  nerves, 


THE  FOOD  VALUE  OF  ALCOHOL  loi 


responsible  for  taste  and  smell,  and  the  gastric 
nerves,  which  regulate  digestion,  are  integral  parts 
of  one  system  and  may  be  equally  affected  by  outside 
influences.  The  odors  coming  through  the  open 
door  of  a bakery  or  cook  shop  will  stimulate  the 
appetite  or  add  to  the  pangs  of  hunger.  The  sight 
of  blood  may  have  a directly  opposite  effect.  The 
taste  of  a bad  oyster  will  produce  nausea  long  before 
any  toxic  action  can  occur. 

The  body  adjusts  itself  to  changes  of  conditions, 
but  this  adjustment  does  not  take  place  so  rapidly 
as  in  self-regulating  man-made  machines.  For  in- 
stance, to  give  a concrete  case : If  a man  ordinarily 
engaged  in  office  work  should  spend  a day  behind  the 
plow  or  in  some  other  strenuous  exercise,  he  will 
burn  up  more  tissue  than  his  body  has  been  accus- 
tomed to  restore  at  short  notice.  The  consequence 
will  be  that  for  three  or  four  days  following  he  will 
be  unusually  hungry  before  every  meal,  and  even 
though  he  eat  more  food,  as  he  almost  certainly  will, 
it  will  not  alter  the  result. 

The  body  is  constantly  meeting  abnormal  condi- 
tions. Disease,  fatigue,  worry,  fear,  all  have  their 
influence  on  our  nervous  system,  including  the  gas- 
tric nerves.  We  often  hear  the  expression  “too 
tired  to  eat.”  The  craving  felt  for  alcohol  under 
such  circumstances  is  only  nature  calling  for  a food 
which  the  body  must  have  before  it  can  return  to 


102  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


“normalcy.”  This  need  may  show  itself  in  a desire 
for  sweets  from  which  the  body  can  make  its  own 
alcohol,  or  in  the  craving  for  a drink,  according  to 
the  habits  of  the  individual.  Manufactured  alcohol 
is  preferable  because  it  is  more  easily  assimilated. 
To  attempt  to  obtain  alcohol  from  sugar  or  starches, 
when  the  digestive  apparatus  is  worn  with  fatigue,  is 
to  invite  chronic  dyspepsia. 

The  reason  for  the  body’s  craving  for  alcohol 
under  these  conditions  now  seems  clear.  It  has  been 
recently  demonstrated  that  alcohol  acts  as  an  anti- 
dote to  the  effect  of  disease  toxins  on  the  nervous 
system,  even  in  the  case  of  some  toxins  which  cause 
permanent  impairment.  If  alcohol  will  thus  counter- 
act the  more  serious  toxins  of  disease,  it  seems  only 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  it  will  have  the  same  effect 
in  the  case  of  fatigue  toxins.  Much  evidence  has 
already  been  produced  to  support  this  conclusion, 
which  fits  in  so  perfectly  with  the  known  facts  about 
alcohol  that  there  can  be  little  doubt  about  its  cor- 
rectness. This,  then,  is  the  logical  explanation  of 
the  stimulating  effect  of  alcohol,  in  itself  a depres- 
sant. 

There  is  another  side  to  the  question  of  the  food 
value  of  alcohol,  which  is  generally  ignored  in  the 
arguments  of  the  prohibitionists.  Alcoholic  bever- 
ages, particularly  the  malt  liquors,  contain  other 
nutrients  which,  in  combination  with  alcohol,  form 


THE  FOOD  VALUE  OF  ALCOHOL  103 


an  easily  digested  and  highly  beneficial  diet.  We  do 
not  make  three  square  meals  a day  from  salt  alone 
nor  do  we  drink  pure  alcohol.  Many  of  the  argu- 
ments against  alcoholic  liquors  can  certainly  be 
modified  to  take  into  account  the  additional  nutrients 
which  these  beverages  contain. 


CHAPTER  XV 


ALCOHOL  AS  A MEDICINE 

There  is  no  drug  in  the  whole  pharmacopoeia 
which  has  been  more  generally  employed  or  has  had 
a wider  field  of  usefulness  than  alcohol.  Its  medici- 
nal value  was  recognized  by  Biblical  and  other  early 
writers : 

“Give  strong  drink  unto  him  that  is  ready  to  perish, 

And  wine  unto  those  that  be  of  heavy  hearts.” 

Proverbs  xxxi : 6. 

Its  use  as  a therapeutic  agent  goes  back  indeed  to 
prehistoric  times,  where,  naturally,  we  cannot  now 
follow  it.  But  it  seems  more  than  probable  that 
alcohol  originally  taught  mankind  the  value  of  drugs 
in  the  treatment  of  disease.  We  can  easily  conceive 
the  feeling  with  which  sickness  was  regarded  by 
primitive  man,  as  a visitation  beyond  control.  The 
sense  of  warmth  and  well-being  which  alcohol  pro- 
duces may  certainly  have  led  our  interesting  ancestors 
to  make  their  first  attempts  at  medical  treatment. 

To-day,  alcohol  is  as  highly  regarded  for  its 
medicinal  qualities,  except  by  a portion  of  one  med- 
ical cult,  as  it  ever  was.  Yet  it  has  been  placed  by 
stringent  legislation  quite  beyond  the  reach  of  the 

104 


ALCOHOL  AS  A MEDICINE  105 

ordinary  individual,  unless  he  is  prepared  to  break 
the  law.  The  first  law  of  nature  is  self-preserva- 
tion, which  is  usually  considered  higher  than  man- 
made laws,  even  though  these  are  the  laws  of  our 
own  country.  If  alcohol  is  necessary  to  maintain 
life,  no  statutes,  and  no  methods  of  enforcement,  will 
ever  be  able  to  prevent  its  use. 

A little  knowledge  is  proverbially  a dangerous 
thing.  It  is  the  hasty,  superficial  half-knowledge  of 
the  laboratory  that  has  condemned  alcohol.  For- 
tunately, we  do  not  live  in  the  laboratory;  and  the 
theories  that  are  born  there  are  of  little  value  unless 
they  can  be  applied  to  the  betterment  of  our  daily 
life.  Before  this  can  be  done,  we  must  have  a 
fuller,  clearer  knowledge  of  the  human  body.  What 
we  think  we  know  has  only  led  to  confusion.  Thus 
we  find  alcohol  is  a depressant,  yet  it  stimulates.  It 
is  a nerve  sedative,  yet  it  produces  nerve  force.  It 
retards  the  action  of  the  digestive  ferments,  yet  it 
aids  digestion.  It  is  no  tissue  builder,  yet  it  adds 
to  the  body’s  weight.  It  lowers  the  body’s  tempera- 
ture, yet  it  warms  the  body.  It  dulls  men’s  wits,  yet 
it  increases  the  activity  of  thought  and  speech.  It 
induces  sleep,  yet  it  will  keep  the  faculties  awake. 
It  may  lower  the  capacity  of  the  individual  worker, 
yet  it  increases  labor’s  output.  Itself  a poison,  it 
protects  against  more  serious  poisons.  There  is 
probably  no  drug  more  complex  in  its  physiological 


io6  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT  1 

action  than  alcohol.  On  account  of  its  great  power 
for  good  and  evil,  it  may  well  be  considered  the  ^ 
Jekyll  and  Hyde  of  the  pharmacopoeia.  Hare  sums 
up  the  pros  and  cons  as  follows : 

“Clinical  experience,  too  great  to  be  ignored, 
stands  for  the  continued  employment  of  the  drug. 
The  drug  does  not  act  as  a stimulant  in  the  or- 
dinary sense  of  the  term,  but  nevertheless  read- 
justs the  circulation  by  dilating  the  peripheral  | 
vessels  and  influences  the  protective  powers  of  the 
body  by  affecting  the  blood-cells  or  the  blood- 
serum  or  the  lymph.  This  belief  seems  to  find 
support  by  reason  of  experiments  carried  out  by 
the  author,  in  which  he  was  able  to  show  that 
alcohol  produces  a distinct  increase  in  the  bacteri- 
olytic power  of  the  blood  in  disease,  probably  by 
increasing  the  activity  of  the  complemental 
body.”* 

Like  many  of  the  things  which  nature  has  pro-  • 
duced,  alcohol  will  lose  its  power  for  harm  as  soon 
as  we  are  able  to  dispel  the  ignorance  w'hich  still  i 
surrounds  it.  Much  has  already  been  accomplished, 
and  now  that  prohibition  has  become  a national 
issue  the  work  will  unquestionably  be  completed.  So 
there  will  be  at  any  rate  one  good  result  of  the 

* “Practical  Therapeutics” ; Seventeenth  Edition,  p.  76. 


ALCOHOL  AS  A MEDICINE 


107 

attempt  at  prohibition:  we  shall  have  a better 
knowledge  of  alcohol. 

The  science  of  medicine  is  passing  through  a 
transition  period.  The  old  theory  of  symptomatic 
treatment  is  being  abandoned.  The  physician  of 
to-day  no  longer  treats  the  symptom  where  it  is 
possible  to  strike  at  the  cause.  Alcohol  may  or  may 
not  be  a heart  stimulant.  It  may  equalize  circula- 
tion. It  may  have  the  property  of  sparing  tissue. 
But  all  these  are  of  secondary  importance.  To  pass 
the  test  of  modern  medicine  we  must  be  able  to  show 
that  alcohol  will  assist  the  body  to  remove  the  cause 
of  disease.  This  has  now  been  definitely  established, 
with  the  result  that  the  whole  structure  of  the  pro- 
hibitionist’s arguments  against  the  use  of  alcohol  in 
medicine  has  fallen  like  a house  of  cards. 

Our  knowledge  of  disease,  and  by  this  is  meant 
infectious  disease,  has  been  brought  to  a point  where 
we  are  able  to  classify  and  distinguish  between  the 
various  forms  of  germ  life  in  much  the  same  way  as 
we  classify  the  different  forms  of  terrestrial  life. 
Just  as  we  divide  the  latter  into  beasts,  birds  and 
fishes,  so  the  former  are  classified  as  necroparasites, 
semiparasites,  true  parasites  and  tissue  parasites. 
Of  these,  the  first  two  produce  toxins.  The  necro- 
parasites possess  a low  grade  of  infectiousness,  that 
is,  of  the  power  to  multiply  and  spread  through  the 
body,  but  they  cause  death  by  their  highly  fatal 


io8  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT  j 

poisons.  The  germs  may  be  unable  to  maintain  ^ 
themselves  in  normal  tissue,  but  their  toxins  are 
powerful  enough  to  kill,  even  after  the  germs  them- 
selves have  ceased  to  exist.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  semiparasites  are  highly  infectious  and  aggres- 
sive and  multiply  rapidly  in  the  system.  Their 
poisons  are  less  deadly,  but  continued  production  of 
the  toxins  may  prove  fatal.  These  are  the  germs 
with  which  we  have  to  deal  in  influenza  and  many  of 
our  serious  diseases. 

With  the  production  of  a practical  germicide,  it  is 
now  possible  to  stamp  out  these  infectious  semi- 
parasites at  any  period  of  the  disease,  unless,  of 
course,  the  case  has  gone  altogether  too  far  for 
curative  treatment.  Under  the  most  favorable  cir- 
cumstances, when  the  germicide  is  given  by  mouth, 
the  germs  can  be  destroyed  in  from  twelve  to  four- 
teen hours.  Thus  it  has  been  possible  to  measure 
the  effect  of  the  toxins  on  the  various  organs  of  the 
body.  Exhaustive  experiments  were  carried  on  in 
influenza  and  semiparasitic  animal  infections  in 
which  many  thousand  cases  were  treated.  In  the 
course  of  these  experiments  it  developed  that  the 
effect  of  the  toxins  on  the  gastric  nerves  sometimes 
results  in  complete  suspension  of  the  digestive 
functions.  Of  course  this  was  nothing  new.  Loss 
of  appetite  indicates  impaired  digestion.  A sick 
animal  does  not  eat  because  his  instinct  teaches  him 


ALCOHOL  AS  A MEDICINE  109 

I that  it  is  useless  to  put  food  in  his  stomach  to  putrefy 
if  he  is  to  derive  no  benefit  from  it.  But  these  ex- 
! periments  were  a conclusive  corroboration.  They 
were  carried  on  as  follows : 

1 The  germicide  was  given  by  mouth.  Results 
1 could  be  expected  in  from  twelve  to  fourteen  hours 
if  digestion  was  not  impaired.  If  no  results  were 
‘ obtained,  the  germicide  was  given  by  intravenous 
injection,  which,  in  most  cases,  proved  effective.  In 
an  attempt  to  clear  up  the  gastric  disturbance,  alcohol 
I was  given  with  the  germicide  and  an  immediate  ab- 
\ sorption  was  obtained,  the  case  responding  at  once 
ji  and  thus  demonstrating  that  alcohol  acts  as  an  anti- 
1 dote  to  the  effect  of  the  toxins  on  the  digestive  or- 
gans. To  grasp  the  importance  of  this  fact  we  must 
j understand  how  the  body  forms  its  antibodies, 
j The  cells  are  the  active  basis  of  all  animal  and 
^vegetable  organization.  According  to  Ehrlich’s 
♦side-chain  theory,  which  is  the  best  conception  of  the 
’1  ph  enomenon,  a cell  is  composed  of  a central  nucleus 
“ upon  which  its  life  and  activity  depend.  Attached 
' to  the  nucleus  are  a variable  number  of  subsidiary 
mouths  or  receptors  (side  chains)  by  which  the  nutri- 
‘®ition  of  the  cell  is  regulated.  These  receptors  differ 
from  each  other  in  certain  chemical  affinities,  accord- 
*®[iiing  to  the  nature  of  the  food  molecules  to  be  ab- 
^ sorbed  by  the  cells.  The  many  different  body  cells 
®i(for  example,  the  blood  cells,  the  nerve  cells,  the 


no  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


muscle  cells),  varying  in  nutritional  requirements, 
account  for  a considerable  variation  in  the  receptors. 
Ehrlich  conceived  that  toxin  molecules  may  acci- 
dentally possess  the  same  affinity  for  certain  recep- 
tors as  the  food  molecules  which  the  latter  are  ac- 
customed to  receive  under  normal  conditions.  To 
the  possibility  that  different  disease  germs  are  at- 
tracted by  a different  set  of  side  chains  is  attributed 
the  specific  immunity  which  follows  various  infec- 
tions. When  infection  occurs  the  germ  or  its  toxin 
becomes  affixed  to  a receptor  with  the  result  that  not 
only  is  the  cell  deprived  of  necessary  nourishment,  but 
injury  or  complete  destruction  may  also  follow.  The 
cell  rids  itself  of  this  condition  by  casting  off  the  re- 
ceptor, and  its  loss  stimulates  regenerative  cell  activ- 
ity to  replace  the  damage.  According  to  Weigert’s 
law  of  regeneration,  the  defect  in  the  cell  structure 
is  repaired  beyond  the  necessary  measure.  Each 
individual  receptor  which  the  cell  loses  is  replaced 
by  numerous  mouths,  of  which  the  fittest  will  remain 
with  the  mother  cell,  the  remainder  being  cast  off 
into  the  blood  circulation,  where  they  act  as  anti- 
bodies. The  same  law  of  regeneration  is  common 
in  the  vegetable  kingdom.  If  a limb  is  removed 
from  a tree,  many  small  branches  will  spring  forth 
to  supply  the  requirements  of  the  roots,  the  most 
favored  branch  crowding  off  the  others,  just  as  in 
the  case  of  the  new  mouths  which  the  cell  produces 


ALCOHOL  AS  A MEDICINE  in 

without  intending  to  retain  them  all.  The  free  re- 
ceptors thrown  off  into  the  circulation  (antibodies) 
retain  their  affinity  for  the  germs  and  their  toxins. 
They  combine  with  these,  and  thus  putting  an  end 
to  their  activities,  render  them  harmless.  All  this 
is  dependent  on  the  cells  receiving  their  accustomed 
nourishment  from  the  digestive  organs.  When  this 
is  cut  off  not  only  are  the  cells  weakened,  but  even 
the  incentive  to  form  new  mouths  no  longer  exists, 
since  there  is  no  food  to  fill  them,  no  work  for  them 
to  do.  Thus  we  see  that  alcohol,  by  Its  antitoxic 
action  on  the  digestive  organs,  may  be  the  saving  fac- 
tor which  enables  the  body  to  form  the  protective 
antibodies  which  are  Its  main  defence  against 
disease. 

In  the  summer  of  1918,  when  influenza,  which 
had  broken  out  in  Europe  in  virulent  form,  was 
threatening  invasion,  but  before  the  great  pandemic 
had  actually  reached  our  shores,  the  records  of  these 
experiments  were  laid  before  the  Medical  Section  of 
the  Council  of  National  Defence  at  Washington. 
It  was  not  long  before  the  disease  found  its  fatal 
way  here,  and  it  soon  became  epidemic.  The  concen- 
tration camps  were  among  the  first  to  suffer  from  its 
ravages.  After  every  other  treatment  had  failed, 
alcohol  in  the  form  of  whisky  was  resorted  to.  There 
was  an  immediate  drop  in  the  death-rate.  One 
young  buddy  who  was  driving  the  dead  wagon  in  a 


1 12  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


southern  camp  tells  the  story  that  his  nightly  load  of 
forty  coffins  was  reduced  to  three  or  four  through 
the  introduction  of  the  whisky  treatment.  Stories 
like  this  continued  to  come  from  the  camps,  but  no 
move  was  made  on  the  part  of  the  American  Medi- 
cal Association  to  modify  its  resolution  against 
alcohol,  although  the  work  amongst  the  soldiers  was 
in  charge  of  high  officials  of  the  association  and 
they  were  daily  receiving  proof  of  the  value  of  al- 
cohol in  the  treatment  of  disease.  But  the  Eight- 
eenth Amendment  had  not  yet  been  approved  by 
the  Supreme  Court  and,  if  the  truth  were  known, 
it  might  nullify  all  the  work  which  the  organization 
had  done  to  further  the  cause  of  prohibition.  How- 
ever, the  public  was  not  slow  to  appreciate  the 
importance  of  the  facts,  familiar  to  them  through 
personal  experience,  the  evidence  of  friends,  and  the 
columns  of  the  press. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


ALCOHOL  AND  FATIGUE 

From  time  immemorial  alcohol  has  been  used  by 
man  to  counteract  the  effect  of  too  great  mental  or 
physical  effort,  or  what  we  call  “fatigue”;  and  be- 
cause the  body  responded  to  alcohol,  and  relief  was 
obtained,  it  was  looked  upon  as  a stimulant.  This 
very  natural  mistake  has  been  handed  down  for 
generations.  Alcohol  is  not  really  a stimulant,  as 
we  understand  the  term.  The  stimulating  effect 
f which  it  produces  in  the  tired  worker  appears  to 
be  due  to  its  power  of  acting  as  an  antidote  to  the 
I fatigue  toxins.  As  long  as  the  effect  is  there,  it  is  a 
! matter  of  little  consequence  to  the  ordinary  indi- 
' vidual  how  it  is  brought  about.  Nevertheless,  it 
i is  of  importance  to  our  subject,  for  to  ignorance 
on  this  point  can  be  traced  many  of  the  abuses  for 
which  alcohol  has  had  to  shoulder  the  blame. 

, Fatigue  is  nature’s  five  o’clock  whistle — the  signal 
that  our  day’s  work  should  be  brought  to  an  end. 
In  its  daily  toil  the  body  burns  up  a certain  amount  of 
i tissue.  This  is  replaced  by  the  foods  we  eat,  but 
; the  capacity  for  replacement  is  limited  by  the  capac- 
ity of  the  digestive  organs.  The  waste  of  tissue, 

! "3 


1 14  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

therefore,  must  also  have  a limit;  and  fatigue  has 
been  provided  to  warn  us  when  this  limit  is  approach- 
ing. The  more  we  study  the  human  machine,  the 
more  we  find  cause  to  marvel  at  the  Omniscience 
which  created  it. 

Our  knowledge  of  fatigue  is  still  very  limited. 
In  1904  Weichardt  announced  that  he  had  discov- 
ered a specific  substance,  a fatigue  toxin,  which  he 
claimed  was  the  chief  cause  of  fatigue,  and  against 
which  the  body  was  able  to  produce  an  antitoxin. 
To  test  this  theory,  Lee  and  Aronovitch  (Depart- 
ment of  Physiology,  Columbia  University,  N.  Y. ) 
instituted  a series  of  experiments.  Cats  and  rab- 
bits were  fatigued  by  running  in  a revolving  wheel. 
After  the  animals  were  thoroughly  fatigued  they 
were  killed,  the  muscles  of  the  hind  legs  were  re- 
moved and  the  muscle  juice  extracted.  This  juice 
was  then  injected  into  the  peritoneal  cavity  of  guinea 
pigs.  As  a “control,”  a similar  experiment  was 
carried  out,  the  muscle  juice  of  non-fatigued  animals 
being  used.  The  results  in  both  cases  were  some 
disturbance  of  respiration  and  an  immediate  fall  of 
temperature.  The  fall  continued  from  .thirty  min- 
utes to  an  hour  and  was  followed  by  a slower  return 
to  normal.  Some  of  the  animals  died  on  the  fol- 
lowing day.  This  occurred  in  the  case  of  the  “con- 
trol” animals  as  well  as  in  those  which  had  been 
treated  with  the  juice  from  the  fatigued  muscles. 


ALCOHOL  AND  FATIGUE 


115 

It  would  therefore  appear  that  there  is  In  the  nor- 
mal muscle  a substance  which,  when  brought  into 
contact  with  other  parts  of  the  body,  produces  a 
toxic  effect. 

The  body  eliminates  its  waste  tissue  through  the 
circulatory  system.  It  is  carried  off  in  the  venous 
blood  and  is  finally  emitted  by  way  of  the  lungs. 
Every  muscle  Is  supplied  with  blood  vessels  and 
lymphatics.  With  this  information  to  build  on  we 
may  conclude  that  the  use  of  the  muscles  eventually 
releases  certain  toxic  substances  which,  finding  their 
way  into  the  circulation,  are  the  direct  cause  of 
fatigue. 

We  may  now  go  a step  further.  When  the  fatigue 
toxin  reaches  the  circulation,  an  antitoxin  is  set  up. 
Thus  we  find  the  Individual,  let  us  say  the  black- 
smith, who  uses  his  muscles  regularly  in  the  course 
of  his  daily  work,  can  do  this  without  being  tired. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  office  worker  who  suddenly 
takes  up  some  strenuous  exercise  Is  rapidly  fatigued; 
but  if  he  continues  the  exercise  his  body  will  become 
accustomed  to  it  and  he  will  no  longer  feel  fatigued, 
because  the  antitoxins  have  been  produced.  There 
is  however  a limit  to  muscular  exertion,  and  when 
this  limit  Is  reached  the  muscles  draw  on  the  other 
parts  of  the  body  and  the  nerves  become  affected. 

The  process  of  mental  fatigue  is  not  so  clear.  We 
know  that  the  nerves  can  be  trained  to  withstand  a 


ii6  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

certain  amount  of  strain,  just  as  our  muscles  can  be 
trained.  But  it  is  apparent  that  the  brain  cannot  be 
used — or  at  any  rate  is  not  so  used  in  ordinary  life — 
with  the  same  regularity  as  the  muscles  of  the  work- 
man. The  bricklayer  performs  the  same  task  day 
after  day,  while  the  business  man  may  be  suddenly 
called  upon,  after  a week  of  routine,  to  decide  some 
momentous  question  which  will  require  the  best 
thought  of  which  he  is  capable.  If  from  this  effort 
antitoxins  are  set  up,  they  are  gradually  eliminated 
until  some  new  crisis  brings  a reproduction.  The 
manual  worker,  for  his  part,  may  suffer  another  form 
of  mental  fatigue.  A common  case  is  the  fatigue 
which  is  the  result  of  monotony  of  employment  or 
environment.  American  industries  have  been  stand- 
ardized to  a great  extent.  A job  which  necessitates 
doing  the  same  thing  over  and  over  again,  attending 
interminably  to  the  same  detail,  affords  no  mental 
relaxation.  The  mechanic  who  bores  the  same-sized 
hole  in  wood  or  metal  thousands  of  times  during  the 
work-week  becomes  subject  to  a nervous  strain,  which 
may  be  more  or  less  severe  according  to  the  dis- 
position and  habits  of  the  individual.  A country 
boy,  coming  from  a farm  where  the  work  and  sur- 
roundings are  varied  and  entering  upon  a job  of  this 
sort  within  the  four  blank  walls  of  a machine  shop, 
will  feel  the  strain  more  than  the  experienced  mill 
hand.  Monotony  such  as  this  may  be  described  as 


ALCOHOL  AND  FATIGUE 


117 

a passive  monotony  in  contradistinction  from  the 
active,  aggressive  monotony  which  is  forced  upon  the 
mind  of  the  worker  in  the  never-ending  shop  noises 
or  eyestrains — the  steam  hammer  of  the  boiler  shop, 
the  whir  of  machinery,  the  dizzying  revolution  of 
wheels,  and  so  on.  The  wearing  effect  of  any  such 
form  of  monotonous  repetition  was  recognized  by 
the  Chinese  in  one  of  their  well-known  punishments 
— the  tickling  of  the  soles  of  the  feet  until  the 
nervous  system  was  completely  shattered. 

These  are  some  of  the  causes  of  the  everyday 
changes  which  occur  within  the  body  and  must  be 
taken  into  account  in  any  study  of  the  effect  of  alcohol 
upon  the  human  system.  To  make  a man  the  me- 
chanical subject  of  a laboratory  experiment  without 
any  consideration  of  his  previous  history,  and  feed 
him  alcohol  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  accurate  data 
as  to  the  effect  of  the  drug,  is  merely  ridiculous. 

Here  is  a simple  test  which  the  reader,  if  he  is 
accustomed  to  using  alcohol  in  moderation,  can  make 
for  himself.  If  he  has  spent  a quiet  morning,  with 
nothing  to  disturb  his  physical  or  mental  poise,  let 
him  take  a drink  of  alcoholic  liquor — a cocktail  or 
whisky — at  luncheon  time.  In  a very  short  while 
the  slight  feeling  of  exhilaration  will  wear  off,  and 
in  its  place  will  come  a feeling  of  depression.  Let 
him,  however,  take  the  same  drink  before  his  evening 
meal — after  a hard  day’s  physical  or  mental  labor — 


ii8  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT  \ 

• 

and  there  will  be  a sustained  feeling  of  stimulation.  , 
Where  alcohol  is  taken  to  overcome  the  effect  of 
fatigue,  depression  iseldom  follows;  for  just  as 
alcohol  will  counteract  fatigue,  so  the  fatigue  toxins 
seem  to  prevent  the  depressant  action  of  alcohol. 

Have  you  ever  noticed  how  much  more  easily  the 
manual  worker  becomes  intoxicated  than  the  man 
who  works  with  his  brain?  The  fatigue  antitoxins 
which  physical  labor  sets  up  appear  to  be  more  con- 
stant than  those  which  may  be  produced  by  mental 
effort.  Consequently,  in  the  steady  manual  worker 
there  is  little  to  offset  the  intoxicating  effect  of 
alcohol.  There  are  many  instances  to  show  the 
slight  effect  alcohol  will  have  on  those  who  are  under- 
going severe  mental  strain.  A colonel  of  artillery  ' 
in  one  of  the  armies  of  the  Allies  tells  the  story  that,  i 
during  the  German  drive  for  the  Channel  Ports  in  j 
the  spring  of  1918,  he  and  his  officers  on  some  days 
drank  a quart  of  Scotch  whisky  apiece  with  no  more 
effect  than  if  it  had  been  so  much  water.  A farm 
hand  may  become  intoxicated  on  three  per  cent,  cider, 
because  his  work  does  not  cause  mental  strain.  A 
mill  hand  may  drink  with  impunity  on  Friday  night  ' 
an  amount  of  alcohol  which,  if  taken  on  Monday 
after  his  day  of  rest,  would  make  him  drunk. 

One  of  the  strongest  arguments  for  prohibition 
was  the  harm  done  by  the  corner  saloon.  A large 
part  of  the  saloon  patronage  came  from  the  laboring 


ALCOHOL  AND  FATIGUE 


119 

classes.  Their  ignorance  of  the  proper  use  of  alcohol 
' often  led  to  excesses,  and  thus  the  saloon  became  a 
I public  nuisance.  Would  it  not  have  been  better  to 
attempt  to  dispel  some  of  the  ignorance  which  has 
surrounded  alcohol  than  to  attempt  to  enforce  a 
nation-wide  prohibition  which  is  bound  to  result  in 
failure?  The  question  has  already  been  answered 
by  the  disastrous  results  which  followed  war-time 
prohibition  and  are  now  emphasizing  the  contempt- 
of-nature  provisions  of  the  Eighteenth  Amendment. 

So  many  arguments  and  data  have  been  advanced 
to  show  the  harmful  effects  of  alcohol  that  the  reader 
will  doubtless  require  on  the  other  side  more  than 
the  mere  theory  of  the  value  of  alcohol  as  related  to 
fatigue.  Some  years  ago  the  subject  was  brought 
home  very  forcibly  to  the  author,  and  as  a result  a 
series  of  observations  was  undertaken  to  determine 
the  value  of  alcohol  as  an  antidote  for  fatigue  in 
athletics.  For  this  purpose  (to  say  nothing  of  other 
purposes)  no  sport  can  equal  golf.  The  golf  stroke 
itself,  from  the  short  put  to  the  full  stroke,  requires 
the  most  exact  coordination  of  mind  and  muscle. 
During  the  swing  the  head  of  the  club  travels  varying 
distances,  from  a few  inches  to  over  twenty  feet. 
The  most  perfect  rhythm  must  be  observed,  the  club 
head  travelling  at  its  maximum  speed  just  as  it  comes 
in  contact  with  the  ball.  While  the  player  may  make 
his  strokes  instinctively,  nevertheless  every  oppor- 


120  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


tunity  is  given  for  mature  deliberation  and  a fault  | 
which  may  spoil  one  stroke  can  be  corrected  at  the 
next.  Thirty-six  holes  of  golf  require  about  six 
hours  of  physical  effort,  and  there  is  no  greater 
mental  strain  in  any  sport  than  can  be  found  on  the 
putting  green  when  the  match  is  close  and  the  prize 
worth  winning.  In  the  full  stroke  the  value  of  mus-  j 
cular  power  is  fully  demonstrated.  The  three-quar-  j 
ter  and  half  strokes  and  the  wrist  shots  supply  a 
perfect  test  of  mental  control.  To  apply  the  proper 
speed  to  the  club  head,  to  play  a ball  from  a cuppy 
lie  and  drop  it  within  a few  feet  of  a hole  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  yards  away,  is  a test  of  delicacy  of 
touch  which  will  compare  favorably  with  the  finest 
laboratory  measurements.  The  results  are  all  set 
forth  accurately  on  the  score  card. 

In  the  observations  made  for  comparative  pur- 
poses, many  prominent  golfers  unwittingly  took  part. 
The  results  were  almost  invariably  the  same.  Where 
a moderate  amount  of  alcohol  was  taken  at  luncheon 
time,  the  play  of  the  afternoon  compared  more  favor- 
ably with  the  morning  round  than  where  total  absti- 
nence was  observed.  If  more  than  enough  alcohol 
to  counteract  the  fatigue  of  the  morning  w'ere  taken,  I 
the  toxic  effect  of  the  drug  could  be  seen  in  the  falling 
off  of  the  play.  The  following  scores,  with  the 
distances,  are  submitted  to  demonstrate  to  our  labo- 


ALCOHOL  AND  FATIGUE 


I2I 


ratory  friends  that  a man  may  still  take  a cocktail 
occasionally  without  impairing  his  efficiency. 

Golfer  No.  i Date:  July  8,  1906 

Alcohol.  One  Martini  cocktail,  one  Scotch  high- 
ball: approximately  45  cubic  centimetres. 

Conditions.  No  golf  for  two  weeks  previous  to 
day  of  score.  Morning  round  mediocre,  score  not 
kept. 


I 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

Total 

Distance 

427 

276 

106 

240 

580 

555 

396 

210 

155 

Score 

5 

4 

2 

4 

6 

5 

4 

4 

3 

37 

10 

1 1 

13 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

Distance 

300 

344 

309 

275 

383 

470 

255 

140 

260 

Score 

5 

4 

4 

4 

5 

5 

4 

3 

3 

37 

74 


This  score  established  an  amateur  record  for  the 
course.  As  every  golfer  knows,  the  mental  strain 
increases  towards  the  end  of  a record  score,  which 
one  misplay  may  spoil. 

Golfer  No.  2 Date:  October  22,  1916 

Alcohol.  Two  Martini  cocktails,  one  Bass’  Ale: 
approximately  75  cubic  centimetres. 

Conditions.  Eighteen  holes  played  the  afternoon 
before.  No  golf  on  the  five  previous  days. 

123456789  Total 
213  312  326  140  540  606  640  180  350 

3 543  66745  43 

344355634  37 


1 Distance 
’ Morning 
Afternoon 


122  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


lO  II  12  13  14  15  16  17  18 

Distance  380  360  455  565  280  150  363  120  225 

Morning  - 556543  534  40 

Afternoon  S46xxxxxxi5 

Total  for  Morning  83 
Total  for  Afternoon  52 

This  score  was  made  in  the  finals  of  a club  cham- 
pionship, which  fact  formed  the  mental  hazard.  The 
match  ended  with  a victory  on  the  twelfth  green. 
An  interesting  sidelight  is  that  on  the  same  day  the 
year  before  the  same  contestants  met  in  the  finals  of 
the  same  championship.  For  that  occasion  the 
scorer  had  been  on  a training-table  diet  for  two 
months  and  played  the  whole  match  without  alcoholic 
stimulation.  In  the  morning  round  he  recorded  an 
eighty-two,  but  in  the  afternoon  he  began  dropping 
strokes  and  was  finally  defeated  on  the  fourteenth 
green,  his  score  showing  ten  strokes  worse  than  the 
one  recorded  here. 

From  these  and  a great  many  similar  records  it 
seems  clear  that  when  alcohol  is  taken  only  in  suffi- 
cient quantity  to  offset  the  effect  of  fatigue,  it  does 
not  interfere  with  accuracy  of  performance  or  the 
will  to  win. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


FATIGUE  AND  DISEASE 

The  craving  for  alcohol  which  fatigue  produces  is 
I a natural  craving,  that  is  to  say,  the  body  is  only 
expressing  a demand  for  something  which  it  really 
, needs  and  for  which  it  will  be  the  better,  once  it  has 
been  obtained.  Fatigue  is  a very  real  cause  of 
i bodily  impairment.  How  serious  a factor  it  may 
j become  is  now  fully  recognized.  Sleep  is  the  sover- 
^ eign  remedy,  but  as  an  emergency  treatment  alcohol 
supplies  the  most  effective  antidote.  Sleep  is  not 
always  obtainable  when  it  is  most  needed;  the  slug- 
gard may  be  drowsy  with  over-indulgence,  while 
the  keen  worker  and  keen  brain,  the  strained  and 

[exhausted  nerves,  may  look  in  vain  for  nature’s 
quiet  hand  to  knit  up  “the  ravell’d  sleave  of  care.” 
■Or  time  may  press;  we  cannot  leave  our  work  un- 
rflnished  and  go  calmly  to  bed;  the  task,  whatever  it 
imay  be,  must  be  finished,  and  finished  efficiently.  We 
.have  only  twenty-four  hours  a day  to  live  on,  as 
; Arnold  Bennett  points  out;  and  sometimes  alcohol, 
liused  with  judgment,  will  enable  us  to  get  and  give 
[full  value  for  every  one  of  the  twenty-four.  To 

i withhold  alcohol  under  conditions  which  clearly  call 

123 


I 


124  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

for  its  use,  is  a very  serious  responsibility.  The 
prohibitionists  may  affect  to  ignore  this  responsibility, 
but  they  lay  themselves  open  to  the  specific  charge  of 
making  their  own  profit  through  others’  loss.  In 
this  connection  one  may  properly  point  out  that  in 
spite  of  its  resolution  professing  to  condemn  alcohol 
absolutely  under  all  conditions,  the  American  Med- 
ical Association  permits  its  members  to  make  an 
enormous  profit  through  their  monopoly  of  prescrib- 
ing alcohol  for  medical  purposes.  A little  more 
outward  consistency  might  at  any  rate  be  expected. 

Fatigue  may  cause  injury  by  its  direct  effect  upon 
the  system,  or  it  may  act  indirectly  by  lowering  our 
powers  of  resistance  and  thus  lay  the  system  open  to 
attack  by  the  germs  of  disease.  One  of  our  leading 
American  pathologists  has  expressed  his  firm  convic- 
tion that  in  the  course  of  time  fatigue  would  be 
recognized  as  one  of  the  main  causes  of  disease; 
and  Sir  James  Paget  is  quoted  as  writing:  “You  will 
find  that  fatigue  has  a larger  share  in  the  promotion 
or  transmission  of  disease  than  any  other  single 
causal  condition  you  can  name.’’*  Nervous  prostra- 
tion and  other  similar  affections  are  examples  of  the 
direct  effect  of  fatigue.  The  disastrous  ending  of 
Mr.  Wilson’s  Western  speaking  tour  in  favor  of 
the  League  of  Nations  showed  how  serious  may  be 

* “The  Human  Machine  and  Industrial  Efficiency”;  Lee, 

p.  79. 


FATIGUE  AND  DISEASE 


125 


the  effects  of  fatigue  caused  by  great  mental  and 
physical  effort  following  a long  period  of  overwork. 

! If  the  President,  to  set  an  example  to  the  nation  in 
the  observance  of  war-time  prohibition,  deprived 
, himself  of  necessary  alcoholic  stimulation,  he  was  a 

i victim  of  the  ignorance  which  brought  this  measure 
; upon  the  country,  and  his  misfortune  can  never  be 

wholly  repaired  now.  It  is  so  easy  to  destroy,  so 
hard  to  rebuild.  But  valuable  as  alcohol  may  be  in 
such  emergencies,  to  arrest  destructive  action  and  re- 
store the  equilibrium  of  the  system,  we  find  its 
greatest  usefulness  in  the  relief  of  the  lighter  cases 
of  fatigue-strain,  which,  if  persisted  in,  will  lower 
our  powers  of  resistance  and  impair  our  physical 
; fitness.  Every  athletic  trainer  knows  the  danger  of 
getting  his  squad  too  “fine.”  Overtraining  is  the 
i result  of  a greater  effort  than  the  recuperative  powers 
! of  the  body  can  take  care  of,  the  cumulative  effect  of 
a small  surplus  of  fatigue  produced  daily  or  at  fre- 
quent intervals,  with  the  consequent  injurious  action 
ion  the  body. 

, The  individual  cannot  stand  alone.  His  physical 

ii  deterioration  is  a menace  to  the  whole  community. 
I'We  are  only  just  beginning  to  understand  the  mean- 
l^ing  of  virulence  in  infectious  disease.  It  is  possible 
; to  breed  the  germs  of  disease  and  increase  their 
j^natural  powers  precisely  as  we  are  able  to  improve 

the  breed  of  our  draft  horses  or  dairy  cows.  Nour- 


126  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT  I 

ishment  and  congenial  surroundings  are  the  founda-  I 
tions  of  this  improvement.  In  the  impaired  body,  I 
which  is  able  to  offer  only  a weak  resistance  to  the  i 
progress  of  an  infection,  the  organisms  of  disease  , 
find  a host  altogether  too  hospitable;  they  feel 
happily  at  home  and  are  able  to  attain  their  highest  ; 
development.  A little  care,  an  ounce  of  prevention,  i 
— in  cases  such  as  this  an  ounce  or  so  of  alcohol, — j 
would  have  saved  the  proverbial  pound  of  cure.  Yet  i 
how  often  do  we  hear  the  expression,  “Prohibition  i 
means  nothing  to  me,  I never  drink  alcoholic  j 
liquors”?  The  man  whose  life  runs  so  smoothly 
that  he  never  needs  manufactured  alcohol  may  or 
may  not  be  a fortunate  individual,  but  he  will  find 
that  prohibition,  if  enforced,  will  have  for  him  a very 
real  meaning  on  account  of  the  malnutrition  it  will  | 
be  responsible  for  among  his  neighbors  whose  need  i 
for  alcohol  is  distinctly  different  from  his. 

The  great  influenza  pandemic  already  referred 
to,*  which  reached  this  country  in  the  late  summer  of  i 
1918,  is  an  example  of  the  serious  conditions  which 
are  to  be  expected  as  a natural  consequence  of  fatigue 
and  malnutrition.  For  four  years  Europe  had  been 
undergoing  the  physical  and  mental  strain  of  the 
greatest  war  in  history.  In  most  of  the  belligerent 
countries,  control  of  foodstuffs  was  resorted  to  and^ 
laws  were  passed  reducing  the  consumption  of 

* See  Chapter  XV. 


FATIGUE  AND  DISEASE 


127 


j alcoholic  beverages.  While  it  is  too  much  to  say, 
I with  so  many  conditions  favoring  disease,  that  de- 
i priving  the  workers  of  necessary  alcohol  was  the 
I primary  cause  of  the  scourge,  nevertheless  it  is  a 
E factor  which  cannot  be  ignored.  If  more  attention 
had  been  paid  to  the  study  of  fatigue  and  its  allevia- 
I tion  by  alcoholic  stimulants  and  other  proper  mea- 
f sures,  the  sweeping  disaster  might  have  been  avoided 
or  at  least  minimized.  Sixteen  months  after  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  the  British  Committee  on  the 
, Health  of  Munition  Workers  gave  the  following 
; picture  of  conditions  in  Great  Britain : “Taking  the 
country  as  a whole  the  Committee  are  bound  to 
record  their  impression  that  the  munition  workers  in 
general  have  been  allowed  to  reach  a state  of  reduced 
* efficiency  and  lowered  health  which  might  have  been 
avoided  without  reduction  of  output  by  attention  to 
the  details  of  daily  and  weekly  rests.”  It  is  difficult 
to  find  a more  monotonous  occupation  than  the  manu- 
facture of  munitions.  In  March,  1917,  the  Food 
Controller,  Lord  Devonport,  reduced  the  annual  out- 
put of  beer  in  the  United  Kingdom  from  26,000,000 
barrels,  which  had  been  allowed  for  the  year  ending 
March  31,  1916,  to  10,000,000  barrels.  Six  months 
[:  later  the  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee 
wrote:  “The  conditions  are  not  the  same  now  as 
fthey  were  in  the  early  days  of  the  war;  not  only 
have  large  numbers  of  the  youngest  and  strongest 


128  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


workers  been  withdrawn  for  military  service,  but 
those  who  remain  are  suffering  from  the  strain  in- 
separable from  a continuous  period  of  long  hours  of 
employment.  . . . The  effects  of  the  strain  may  ' 
even  have  been  already  more  serious  than  appears  on  i 
the  surface,  for  while  it  is  possible  to  judge  roughly 
the  general  condition  of  those  working  in  the  factory  j 
to-day,  little  information  is  available  concerning  the  | 
large  number  of  workers  who,  for  one  reason  or  i 
another,  and  often  because  they  find  the  work  too  j 
arduous,  are  continually  giving  up  their  job.”  In  ( 
many  of  the  other  countries  the  conditions  were  far  i 
worse. 

The  danger  to  the  health  of  a community  which  i 
may  result  from  depriving  the  normal  human  being 
of  alcohol  was  convincingly  demonstrated  by  our  own 
experience  during  mobilization.  When  the  draft 
called  our  millions  to  the  colors,  it  took  the  pick  of 
the  nation’s  manhood.  Men  in  the  prime  of  youth- 
ful vigor  were  selected  after  a careful  medical  exam- 
ination and  sent  away  to  the  concentration  camps. 

It  is  true  that  the  camps  were  sometimes  crowded, 
but  many  of  these  men  came  from  the  crowded  quar- 
ters of  our  large  cities.  It  is  also  true  that  they 
were  unable  to  choose  their  own  food,  but  their 
rations  were  selected  by  men  of  experience  and  should 
not  have  affected  their  physical  condition  adversely. 
The  one  great  dietary  change  which  came  to  them 


FATIGUE  AND  DISEASE 


129 


when  they  entered  the  Army  was  that  they  were  no 
longer  able  to  obtain  the  customary  alcoholic  drink  to 
; meet  their  bodily  requirements.  They  were  then 
put  through  a severe  course  of  physical  training,  and 
in  addition  to  the  fatigue  produced  by  this  muscular 
exercise,  they  were  continually  subject  to  the  mental 
strain  of  the  thought  of  separation  from  home  and 
family  to  take  part  on  a foreign  soil  in  the  greatest 
war  in  history.  It  is  no  wonder  that  epidemics  broke 
out  in  these  camps,  nor  is  it  surprising  that  the  death 
rate  from  diseases  like  pneumonia  should  have  been 
two  or  three  times  the  normal.  When  we  hear 
I stories  of  the  great  improvement  which  prohibition 
has  wrought  in  some  homes  by  the  reformation  of  the 
drunken  husband,  we  must  think  also  of  the  fathers 
and  mothers  whosp  sons  were  carried  off  in  these 
;;  camp  epidemics  through  official  ignorance  of  the 
j proper  use  of  alcohol.  Drunkenness  is  a vice,  but 
il  it  is  curable.  No  one  can  cure  death. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


THE  ECONOMIC  SIDE  OF  PROHIBITION 

Before  discussing  prohibition  more  closely  from 
the  economic  standpoint,  let  us  consider  some  of  the  i 
conditions  by  which  we  are  surrounded — conditions  | 
under  which  we  are  permitted  to  exist.  We  are  all  ! 
subject  to  certain  natural  laws, — man  and  beast,  fish  i 
and  fowl,  insect  and  plant  life.  From  chaos  to  the 
present  day  there  has  been,  it  is  hoped,  a gradual 
improvement  in  terrestrial  life.  That  this  improve- 
ment may  go  on,  nature  endeavors  to  maintain  an  i 
even  balance  in  her  dealings  with  her  creatures,  so  i 
that  those  who  by  their  own  efforts  rise  above  the  | 
general  mass  may  go  forward,  while  those  who  slip  ( 
back  fall  finally  to  oblivion.  Where  man  has  gained  1 
a thorough  knowledge  of  particular  conditions,  he  has  i 
frequently  been  able  to  improve  on  nature’s  methods. 
But  too  often,  through  a facile  enthusiasm  born  of 
ignorance,  he  has  run  counter  to  nature’s  purposes 
and  has  thus  been  brought  to  disaster.  Take  as  an 
example  some  of  the  legislation  designed  to  protect  j 
wild  life.  Bounties  have  been  offered  for  the  de-  j 

struction  of  certain  predatory  birds,  because  the  in- 

130 


THE  ECONOMIC  SIDE 


131 

jury  they  did  seemed  obvious;  yet  when  they  have 
been  driven  from  the  locality,  it  has  been  found  that 
these  very  outlaws  had  been  keeping  down  dangerous 
vermin,  which  became  an  uncontrollable  pest  as  soon 
as  nature’s  guard  had  been  removed.  This  leaping 
before  looking  is  typical  of  prohibition  to-day.  The 
average  temperance  worker  may  have  excellent  inten- 
tions, but  he  knows  little  or  nothing  about  alcohol 
from  the  scientific  side.  He  has  had  the  usual  expe- 
rience— an  intemperate  friend  or  acquaintance,  some 
information  gleaned  from  police  courts  or  police 
reports,  some  misinformation  absorbed  from  the 
ranting  of  an  ignorant  enthusiast,  mistaking  denunci- 
ation for  demonstration.  Yet  through  organized 
effort  the  prohibitionists  have  been  able  to  impose 
their  will  upon  the  legislatures  of  the  country  and  en- 
I graft  upon  the  fundamental  law  a measure  which 
should  never  have  passed  beyond  the  dignity  of  a 
village  ordinance.  It  is  an  extraordinary  case  of 
wholesale  modern  dragooning.  But  intolerance  does 
I not  cease  to  be  vicious  simply  because  it  is  exhibited 
on  a vast  scale.  Congress  cannot  repeal  the  laws  of 
nature.  Be  sure  of  one  thing:  evolution  will  never 
: bring  any  species  down  to  the  level  of  its  unfit.  And 
no  nation  can  adopt  measures  which  sacrifice  its 
manhood  and  womanhood  for  the  benefit  of  its 
drunkards  and  debauchees  and  still  hold  its  economic 
position.  The  country  will  go  forward,  but  there 


132  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

will  be  a good  deal  of  wreckage  to  be  cleared  out  of 
the  way. 

A nation’s  economic  position  is  dependent  on — i, 
natural  resources;  2.  industry;  3.  commerce;  4. 
thrift.  With  industry  is  included  the  health  and 
efficiency  of  the  workers,  and  thrift  embraces  the 
thrift  of  the  people  themselves  and  the  conservation 
of  the  nation’s  finances  and  natural  resources.  Prac- 
tically all  national  wealth  is  the  result  of  industry, 
for  however  favored  a nation  may  be  in  natural 
resources  these  can  only  be  brought  into  marketable 
form  as  the  result  of  labor.  To  reap  the  reward  of 
industry,  labor’s  product  must  be  bartered.  If  a 
nation  is  able  to  produce  a surplus  in  excess  of  its 
own  needs,  it  may  add  to  the  national  wealth  by  ' 
exchanging  this  surplus  for  some  form  of  permanent  | 
property,  or  for  some  product  which  can  be  produced  i 
more  cheaply  abroad,  thus  releasing  labor  for  more  , 
remunerative  production  at  home.  j 

It  is  still  too  early  to  estimate  the  effect  of  prohi-  * 
bition  on  our  industries:  first,  because  of  lack  of  ! 
effective  enforcement,  and  second  because,  following 
so  closely  upon  a great  world  upheaval,  during  which 
labor’s  powers  of  production  were  taxed  to  the  limit  ; 
with  the  natural  consequence  that  wages  rose  with  ' 
the  increased  demand,  many  disadvantages  which  I 
might  be  attributed  to  prohibition  may  be  due  wholly 
or  partly  to  other  conditions.  It  is  much  easier  to 


THE  ECONOMIC  SIDE 


133 


disprove  the  economic  arguments  of  the  prohibi- 
tionists than  to  arrive  at  definite  conclusions  on  the 
! other  side  from  the  records  now  available.  It  will 
require  a long  time  and  a careful  study  of  statistics 
before  we  shall  be  able  to  gauge  the  full  effect  of  the 
new  order  of  things  upon  the  country.  While  certain 
outstanding  facts  may  be  considered,  the  question  as 
a whole  can  only  be  discussed  in  principle. 

What  will  be  the  effect  of  enforced  prohibition 
upon  labor?  A requirement  of  primary  importance 
for  productive  industry  is  that  labor  must  be  well  and 
I suitably  fed:  because  if  the  body  is  undernourished, 
its  capacity  for  physical  effort  is  lowered,  and  because 
starvation,  whether  sudden  or  gradual,  naturally 
breeds  discontent  and  may  lead  to  revolution  in  the 
future  as  in  the  past.  But  a man  may  eat  his  fill  and 
yet  starve  his  body.  Any  radical  change  of  diet  may 
cause  malnutrition  until  the  people  have  accustomed 
themselves  to  it.  Malt  liquor  has  been  an  important 
part  of  the  laborer’s  diet.  It  is  no  easy  matter  to 
I provide  a substitute.  Since  national  prohibition 
1 went  into  effect  the  country  has  been  agitated  by 
strikes  and  other  forms  of  labor  unrest.  Lowered 
production  is  everywhere  apparent.  Here  is  the 
' report  of  a special  grand  jury  that  has  been  looking 
into  the  cause  of  housing  shortage  in  the  City  of 
Cleveland : 


134  the  eighteenth  AMENDMENT 

“The  testimony  adduced  indicates  conclusively 
that  it  requires  approximately  twice  as  long  with 
the  same  number  of  men  to  erect  a house  to-day 
as  it  did  in  pre-war  times.  Impartial  tests  show 
that  it  takes  twice  as  many  carpenter  hours  to  do 
carpenter  work  on  a building  as  it  did  five  years 
ago.  Bricklayers  lay  less  than  half  the  number  of 
bricks;  paperhangers,  painters,  and  plasterers  all 
do  less  than  half  the  work  in  the  same  time  that 
they  did  five  years  ago. 

“Manufacturing  firms  which  make  and  sell 
building  materials  prove  by  their  records  that 
while  wages  have  gone  up  200  per  cent,  in  some 
cases,  labor  costs  have  gone  up  400  per  cent., 
indicating  that  the  employees  are  getting  double  I 
pay  for  one-half  the  work  as  compared  with  before 
the  war.” 

These  conditions  have  been  duplicated  in  many  of 
the  cities  throughout  the  country,  and  though  wages 
have  been  tending  to  come  to  a lower  level  under  the 
pressure  of  industrial  necessity,  there  has  been  no 
recognizable  readjustment  of  the  work-rate  in  the 
direction  of  pre-war  efficiency.  The  very  thing  which  j 
has  occurred — deterioration — was  predicted  by  the  j 
leaders  of  labor.  The  following  is  the  opinion  of 
Mr.  Samuel  Gompers,  President  of  the  American  j 
Federation  of  Labor,  as  to  the  effect  that  prohibition 


THE  ECONOMIC  SIDE 


135 

would  have  upon  the  working  man.  This  effect  is 
only  the  natural  sequel  of  causes  which  science  has 
fully  explained. 

“It  is  not  a question  of  right  or  wrong.  It  is 
not  a question  of  whether  we  approve  or  dis- 
approve of  beer  or  drinking.  It  is  his  habit.  And 
when  you  invade  a man’s  habits,  what  happens? 
You  upset  that  man.  You  unsettle  him.  Uproot- 
ing one  habit  uproots  others.  And  you  find  that 
the  man  who  was  heretofore  satisfied  to  labor  as 
he  had  been  laboring,  to  go  home  nights  and  talk 
or  read,  becomes  restive  and  discontented.  In- 
stead of  sitting  down  to  rest  and  read,  he  goes  out 
into  the  street.  There  he  meets  other  men,  rest- 
less and  unsettled  like  himself.  And  in  the  rubbing 
together  of  their  mutual  grievances  there  are 
sparks  and  sometimes  fire. 

“I  have  heard  it  stated,  and  I believe  it,  that 
the  birth  of  the  Bolsheviki  was  in  prohibition. 
Harmful  as  vodka  was,  it  enabled  the  Russian 
peasant  to  find  surcease  from  the  dull  monotony 
of  his  life.  Without  it  he  found  only  trouble  and 
torment  and  the  desire  to  tear  down  what  he  could 
not  rebuild.  And  to-day  Russia  lies  bleeding,  tor- 
tured. It  was  too  big  a price  to  pay. 

“It  is  time  for  all  of  us  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  a thing  like  prohibition  cannot  be  attained  by 
executive  decree. 


136  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

“It  cannot  be  pounded,  with  heavy  hand,  from 
the  top  downward.  It  must,  like  democracy,  flow 
from  the  bottom  upward.” 

In  the  prohibition  propaganda,  much  capital  has 
been  made  of  the  alleged  foodstuff  waste  Incident  to 
the  manufacture  of  alcoholic  beverages.  Dr.  Fisk, 
in  his  book  on  alcohol,  says : 

“Exact  figures  are  not  obtainable,  but  it  is  con- 
servatively estimated  that  probably  110,000,000 
bushels  of  grain  are  utilized  in  the  manufacture  of 
alcoholic  beverages.  Grapes  and  molasses  (152,- 
000,000  gallons)  must  not  be  forgotten  in  con- 
sidering these  matters.  Grapes  utilized  for  sweet 
wines  when  converted  into  raisins  constitute  a 
most  valuable  preserved  food,  and  this  wine-grow- 
ing industry  might  well  be  transformed  into  a 
food-growing  industry. 

“It  has  been  estimated  that  enough  grain  is 
used  in  this  country  in  the  manufacture  of  alcoholic 
beverages  to  supply  11,000,000  loaves  of  bread 
daily. 

“In  addition  to  the  grain  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  beer,  as  at  least  approximately  stated 
in  the  proclamation  of  the  Brewers’  Board  of 
Trade  (70,505,488  bushels),  there  should  be  con- 
sidered the  39,000,000  bushels  of  corn,  rye  and 
malt  used  in  distilling  spirits,  one-half  of  which 


THE  ECONOMIC  SIDE 


137 

was  used  for  industrial  purposes  in  1916.  Also 
there  must  be  considered  the  labor  of  those  en- 
gaged in  the  brewing  and  distilling  business  as  well 
as  in  the  liquor-selling  business.  The  loss  to  the 
country  involved  in  depriving  real  wealth-produc- 
ing industries  of  the  labor  of  these  men  and  the 
destruction  of  coal,  gasoline,  steel,  wood  and  other 
material  that  is  used  in  the  alcohol  industries,  must 
also  be  figured  in  the  bill  against  alcohol — the 
purely  economic  bill. 

“The  plea,  therefore,  that  grave  industrial  and 
economic  injury  would  result  from  prohibiting  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  alcoholic  beverages 
naively  ignores  the  real  effect  of  such  a measure, 
the  diverting  into  healthful  occupations  of  those 
now  engaged  in  unhealthful  occupations  that 
involve  the  destruction  of  food  and  the  manu- 
facture of  a poison  instead  of  the  production  of 
wealth.”* 

No  objection  whatever  is  made  by  the  prohibition- 
ists to  what  they  please  to  term  “food  waste”  and 
“loss  to  the  country  involved  in  depriving  real  wealth- 
producing  industries  of  labor,”  etc.,  when  it  occurs 
in  the  process  of  manufacturing  fruit  syrups  for  the 
soda  water  fountain  or  unfermented  beverages  from 
grapes,  apples  and  other  fruits. 

* “Alcohol- — Its  Relation  m Human  Efficiency  and  Lon- 
gevity”; pp.  147,  152-4 


138  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

Dr.  Fisk’s  grain  figures  look  large  by  themselves,  i 
but,  like  so  many  of  his  statements,  they  lose  their 
impressiveness  as  soon  as  they  are  placed  in  their  i 
proper  perspective.  The  United  States  produces  j 
annually  about  5,400,000,000  bushels  of  grain,  so  j 
that  110,000,000  bushels  is  only  about  two  per  cent,  j 
of  the  total.  If  the  grain  used  in  the  manufacture  | 
of  alcohol  and  alcoholic  beverages  were  all  loss,  the  1 
cash  equivalent  would  still  be  less  than  we  pay  for  the 
activities  of  the  rat.  As  a purely  business  proposi- 
tion, extermination  of  the  rat  would  be  a better  and 
cheaper  undertaking  than  elimination  of  the  liquor 
industry. 

But  even  conceding  that  as  the  demand  for  grain 
for  home  consumption  increases,  the  110,000,000 
bushels  used  in  the  manufacture  of  alcohol  may  take 
on  a growing  importance:  what  then?  In  the  first 
place,  there  is  a good  deal  of  acreage  that  the  farmer 
does  not  always  use  to  its  full  extent.  It  is  better 
for  him  to  plant  and  sell  than  deliberately  to  re- 
strict his  output.  In  the  second  place,  this  alcohol 
grain  was  not  entirely  lost  to  other  industries. 
Thirty-five  per  cent,  of  the  grain  used  in  brewing  beer 
was  returned  to  the  farmer  as  a dairy  food.  Soren- 
sen, a Danish  authority  on  the  pure  food  question, 
has  recently  demonstrated  that  when  barley,  which 
is  the  principal  grain  used  by  brewers,  is  fed  to  cattle 
only  5 1 per  cent,  of  the  food  value  is  utilized.  On 


THE  ECONOMIC  SIDE 


139 


the  other  hand,  when  fed  in  the  form  of  brewers’ 
grain  61  per  cent,  of  the  nutritive  value  is  retained. 
In  the  third  place,  will  prohibition  stop  the  alleged 
waste?  To-day  our  brewers  are  using  the  same 
grain  in  the  manufacture  of  non-alcoholic  beers.  The 
difference  from  the  economic  standpoint  is  that  the 
product  has  lost  much  of  its  food  value. 

There  is  still  another  side  to  the  question.  The 
people  are  now  buying  grain  and  making  their  own 
beer.  Signs  like  the  one  below  have  become  familiar 
in  the  grocers’  windows : 

Make  Your  Own  at  Home 
Ask  Us  How 

While  home-made  beer  has  the  full  food  value,  the 
grain  from  which  it  is  made  goes  into  the  swill  pail 
and  is  lost  to  the  farmer  and  cattle  breeder.  Yet  the 
argument  of  grain  waste  is  still  being  used  to  pro- 
mote the  cause  of  prohibition.  Dr.  C.  W.  Saleeby, 
the  British  authority  on  eugenics  and  an  advocate 
(but  scarcely  authoritative)  of  temperance,  speak- 
ing at  the  international  conference  against  alcohol- 
ism, expressed  the  opinion  that  England  must  adopt 
prohibition  as  a grain  conservation  measure.  The 
childish  simplicity  of  some  minds  is  truly  remark- 
able. The  law  of  supply  and  demand  cannot  be 
long  evaded  by  governmental  fiat.  The  economic 


140  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

question  to  be  considered  is  not  precisely  how  much 
grain,  grapes  or  molasses  Is  destroyed  in  the  manu- 
facture of  alcohol,  but  whether  It  Is  better  and 
cheaper  for  the  nation  to  obtain  its  alcohol  in  this 
manner,  or  through  sugars,  starches  and  other 
alcohol-producing  foods  in  the  form  of  candies, 
sweets,  etc.  A rather  interesting  comment  on  Dr. 
Saleeby’s  statement  is  provided  by  the  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment which  has  just  been  passed,  removing  many  of  I 
the  war-time  restrictions  on  the  sale  of  manufactured  i 
alcohol  and  allowing  the  brewers  and  distillers  to  j 
return  to  the  pre-war  standard  of  strength.  | 

How  will  prohibition  affect  our  commerce  ? Wine 
making  is  an  important  industry  in  many  of  the 
countries  of  Europe.  Before  the  Great  War  the 
United  States  received  large  consignments  of  wines 
from  France,  Italy  and  the  Rhineland,  and  whiskies 
and  ales  from  Britain.  Our  markets  for  these  prod- 
ucts have  now  been  closed  to  Europe.  This  is 
particularly  unfortunate  because  of  the  condition  of 
foreign  exchange.  When  the  new  Greenback  party 
came  into  power  In  the  United  States  they  set  an 
example.  In  their  “elastic  currency,”  which  started 
the  printing  presses  of  the  European  nations  In  the 
busy  production  of  paper  money  as  a war  measure. 
In  June,  1914,  the  world’s  stock  of  gold  coin  and 
bullion  far  exceeded  the  amount  of  paper  money  in 


THE  ECONOMIC  SIDE 


14T 

circulation.  The  ratio  of  gold  to  paper  at  that  time 
was  estimated  at  $141  gold  to  every  $100  paper. 
According  to  the  latest  figures,  although  the  gold 
supply  has  increased,  the  ratio  to-day  (excluding  the 
Bolshevik  government)  is  only  $19  gold  for  every 
$100  paper.  Statistics  issued  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment in  November,  1919,  showed  that  the  expansion 
of  currency,  taking  19 13  as  par  (100)  was: 

In  the  United  States  (up  to  May,  1910)  173 

In  Great  Britain  (August,  1919)  244 

In  France  (June,  1919)  365 

In  Italy  (April,  1919)  440 

Substantial  additions  to  the  paper  currencies  of 
the  Allied  Nations  have  accrued  since  these  statistics 
were  compiled. 

Great  issues  of  paper  money  have  been  made  in 
Germany.  The  Bank  of  Germany  lost  1,458,508,- 
000  marks  gold  during  the  year  following  the  arm- 
f istice,  but  added  13,669,154,000  marks  to  its  note 
circulation.  The  gold  cover  on  November  15,  1918, 
was  14  per  cent.,  and  a year  later  it  had  shrunk  to 
3.1  per  cent.  This  currency  inflation  has  of  course 
Teen  reflected  in  the  rates  for  foreign  exchange,  as 
i will  be  seen  by  reference  to  the  following  table. 
Serious  depreciation  has  occurred  even  in  the  case  of 
Great  Britain,  although  she  is  producing  large  quan- 
tities of  gold  in  her  colonial  possessions. 


142  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

Parity  Oct.  1920  Aug.  1921 


Great  Britain  Sterling  $4.8665  $3,435  $3.65 


France 

Franc 

.1930 

.0645 

.0772 

Italy 

Lira 

.1930 

•0374 

.0432 

Germany 

Mark 

.2380 

.0141 

.0119 

It  is  perfectly  obvious  that  foreign  paper  is  no 
longer  effective  as  a medium  for  negotiating  a pur- 
chase in  other  countries.  What  Is  the  solution? 
These  nations  must  return  to  the  ancient  system  of  I 
barter,  or,  what  is  but  one  step  removed,  must  I 
establish  credits  by  the  shipment  of  goods. 

A substantial  part  of  the  export  trade  of  Europe 
consists  In  the  shipment  of  fine  wines,  brandies  and  J 
other  alcoholic  liquors.  These  commodities  must  1 
now  find  another  market,  for  no  one  is  foolish  enough  : 
to  suppose  that  France,  Italy  and  the  Rhineland  will 
abandon  their  wine-growing  industries  to  please 
American  financiers  who  preach  prohibition  in  their 
churches  while  their  business  associates  invest  their  1 
money  in  corn  products,  sugars  and  other  alcohol- 
producing  foods,  which  will  become  increasingly 
necessary  with  the  enforcement  of  the  Eighteenth 
Amendment.  The  credits  set  up  by  the  wine-grow- 
ing countries  will  be  lost  to  America,  and  will  be  used 
to  make  purchases  in  other  countries;  cotton  from 
Egypt,  grain  and  beef  from  The  Argentine,  etc.  I 
In  turning  away  this  business  we  are  deliberately 
encouraging  trade  with  our  competitors.  Every  de- 


THE  ECONOMIC  SIDE 


143 


partment-store  owner  is  familiar  with  the  advantages 
I to  be  gained  by  offering  attractive  bargains  to  bring 
customers  into  the  shop.  The  loss  of  our  wine- 
‘ growing  customers,  and  the  trade  which  these  exports 
to  other  countries  will  encourage,  will  undoubtedly 
lead  to  great  commercial  changes — how  great  we 
cannot  now  foresee. 

The  following  schedule  should  be  found  interest- 
I ing  for  reference. 

Importations  from  Europe  of  alcoholic  bever- 
ages for  the  year  1913  (the  last  year  before 
the  trade  was  interrupted  by  the  war). 

England 

Malt  liquors  and  other  beverages 
in  bottles  or  jugs 
in  other  coverings 
Brandy 
Cordials 
Whisky 
Gin 

All  other  spirits  distilled 
Champagnes  and  other  sparkling 
wines 

Still  wines  in  casks 
Still  wines  in  other  coverings 

Scotland 

Malt  liquors  and  other  beverages 
in  bottles  or  jugs 
in  other  coverings 


872,964  gals. 

575.245 

4,699  pf.  gals. 

16,764  “ “ 

57.143  “ “ 

703,070  “ “ 

33.836  “ “ 

15,729  doz.  qts. 
32,352  gals. 
5,586  doz.  qts. 


11,273  gals. 

5.969  “ 


144  the  eighteenth  AMENDMENT 


Brandy 

Cordials 

Whisky 

Gin 

All  other  spirits  distilled 
Champagnes  and  other  sparkling 
wines 

Still  wines  in  casks 

Still  wines  in  other  coverings 


326  pf.  gals.  I 

039  “ “ 

895,026  “ “ ' 

4,950  “ “ 

6,034  “ “ , 

2,915  doz.  qts,  i 
2,581  gals.  ^ 
725  doz.  qts.  I 


Ireland 


Malt  liquors  and  other  beverages 
in  bottles  or  jugs 
in  other  coverings 
Brandy 
Cordials 
Whisky 
Gin 

All  other  spirits  distilled 
Champagnes  and  other  sparkling 
wines 

Still  wines  in  casks 

Still  wines  in  other  coverings 


461,422  gals. 
676,650 

610  pf.  gals. 
23  “ “ 

162,175  “ “ 


3,135  “ 
342  “ 


(( 

(( 


35  gals. 
204  doz.  qts. 


France 

Malt  liquors  and  other  beverages 
in  bottles  or  jugs 
in  other  coverings 
Brandy 
Cordials 
Whisky 
Gin 

All  other  spirits  distilled 


71  gals. 


487,445  pf-  gals. 

190,027  “ “ 

739  “ “ 

544  “ 

S.656  “ “ 


THE  ECONOMIC  SIDE 


145 


Champagnes  and  other  sparkling 
wines 

Still  wines  in  casks 

Still  wines  in  other  coverings 

Italy 

Malt  liquors  and  other  beverages 
in  bottles  or  jugs 
in  other  coverings 
Brandy 
Cordials 
Whisky 
Gin 

All  other  spirits  distilled 
Champagnes  and  other  sparkling 
wines 

Still  wines  in  casks 
Still  wines  in  other  coverings 


246,361  doz.  qts. 
232,152  gals. 
227,273  doz.  qts. 


10,980  pf.  gals. 
168,569 
245 
4 

9,005 


((  ii 

U U 

it  it 

it  ii 


1,575  doz.  qts. 
1,912,500  gals. 
236,134  doz.  qts. 


All  Other  European  Countries 
Malt  liquors  and  other  beverages 

in  bottles  or  jugs  95A93  gals, 

in  other  coverings  4>978>397 


Brandy 
Cordials 
Whisky 
Gin 

All  other  spirits  distilled 
Champagnes  and  other  sparkling 
wines 

Still  wines  in  casks 
Still  wines  in  other  coverings 


97,604  pf.  gals. 
174,368 
6,337 

139,352 

117,011 


“it  “ ii 
ii  it 

it  it 

it  ii 


14,120  doz.  qts. 
1,713,619  gals. 
173,295  doz.  qts. 


There  is  probably  no  more  important  influence  on 
national  thrift  than  the  methods  employed  by  the 


146  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

government  in  raising  the  necessary  funds  to  meet 
the  national  expenses.  The  question  of  what  is  the  | 
best  form  of  taxation  has  been  agitated  by  all  politi-  ■ 
cal  parties.  Prohibition  has  deprived  the  treasury  1 
of  over  $1,000,000,000  in  taxes,*  and  this  loss  must  | 
be  made  up  from  some  other  source, — a very  serious  | 
problem,  coming  as  it  does  at  a time  when  the  coun-  j 
try  is  overburdened  with  taxation.  The  Dry  party  < 
has  attempted  to  belittle  the  issue  by  statements  that  ’ 
the  loss  will  be  made  up  by  the  saving  which  the  new 
order  of  things  will  promote  and  that  the  excise  tax  ] 
is  an  immoral  tax,  based  on  drunkenness  and  vice.  | 
This  is  sheer  nonsense.  There  is  probably  no  better  - 
form  of  taxation  than  the  liquor  tax.  Compared 
with  our  present  income  and  inheritance  taxes,  it  is 
highly  moral.  The  excise  tax  sat  lightly  on  the 
people.  For  those  who  used  alcohol  in  moderation, 
it  was  negligible.  It  was  an  appreciable  tax  only  ' 
on  luxury  and  waste  and  acted  as  a restraint  to  self- 
indulgence,  except  in  the  case  of  those  improvident 
people  who  like  to  indulge  in  luxury  for  its  own  sake.  1 
On  the  other  hand,  the  income  and  inheritance  taxes, 
in  their  graduated  form,  impose  a burden  on  the 
industrious  and  thrifty  for  the  benefit  of  the  shiftless  , 
and  improvident.  In  addition  to  all  this,  there  is 

* The  figures  given  by  Professor  E.  R.  A.  Seligman  of 
Columbia  University  when  testifying  before  the  Senate 
Finance  Committee. 


THE  ECONOMIC  SIDE 


147 


the  very  considerable  cost  to  the  taxpayer  of  enforc- 
ing the  amendment,  for  the  necessary  moneys  for 
administering  the  Volstead  Act  and  state  laws  like 
the  Mullan-Gage  Act  certainly  cannot  be  obtained 
from  fines  and  penalties  unless  our  revenue  agents 
are  prepared  to  encourage  law-breaking. 

In  computing  the  expense  of  prohibition,  we  must 
add  the  increase  in  our  food  bill,  for  in  limiting  the 
sources  from  which  alcohol  can  be  obtained  (and 
unquestionably  the  malting  of  grain  is  cheaper  than 
any  other  method  of  producing  it),  the  price  of  a 
necessary  commodity  has  been  raised,  whether  it  is 
produced  naturally  in  the  system  or  is  obtained  by 
manufacture. 

Eventually  we  shall  be  able  to  make  an  approxi- 
mate estimate  of  the  monetary  cost  of  prohibition, 
but  no  one  will  ever  be  able  to  calculate  the  price  we 
shall  have  to  pay  through  the  impairment  it  will 
cause  in  the  morale  of  the  nation.  Hobson,  the 
professional  prohibitionist,  has  estimated  that  at  the 
time  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  went  into  effect 
there  were  one  million  heavy  drinkers  in  the  United 
States — less  than  one  per  cent,  of  the  population. 
To-day  there  are  many  millions  of  law-breakers,  for 
the  people  have  resented  the  intrusion  upon  their 
personal  liberties  and  are  not  obeying  the  law. 
America  has  grown  great  because  of  the  freedom 
which  was  guaranteed  to  her  people  under  the  Bill  of 


148  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

Rights  given  to  us  by  the  Fathers.  This  freedom  has  i 
attracted  some  of  the  best  blood  of  the  old  world,  j 
and  the  nation  developed  it  under  the  Constitution.  ; 
The  men  who  were  able  to  conquer  a wilderness  were 
able  to  conquer  self.  But  the  national  character 
has  now  fallen  so  low  that  it  must  be  taken  in  hand 
by  a paternalistic  government.  It  is  a strange  turn 
of  the  wheel  of  fortune  that  to-day,  when  the  example  ' 
which  we  set  has  borne  fruit  and  democracy  has  i 
spread  throughout  the  world,  the  freedom  which  we  | 
once  enjoyed  should  be  distorted  and  strangled  by  I 
bureaucratic  regulation. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


THE  LAW  AND  PERSONAL  LIBERTY 

The  legality  of  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  has 
■ been  upheld  by  the  Supreme  Court.  A majority  of 
the  states,  through  their  legislatures,  have  decided 
that  prohibition  is  for  the  best  interests  of  the  coun- 
i try,  and  according  to  the  court’s  decision  they  had 
the  right  so  to  amend  the  Constitution.  The  court 
has  ruled  that  every  technical  safeguard  that  the 
Fathers  provided  has  been  fully  complied  with.  The 
decision  is  of  momentous  importance  to  the  people 
of  America  because  of  the  questions  of  the  rights  of 
property,  state  rights  and  personal  liberty  involved. 

There  is  a condition  which  no  form  of  popular 
government  has  been  able  to  guard  against — the 
ignorance  or  apathy  of  the  people  themselves.  In 
this  case  ignorance  was  organized — organized  by 
I selfish,  sordid  interests  which  hoped  to  profit  by  the 
- new  order  of  things.  There  is  but  one  way  in  which 
j this  condition  can  be  met  by  a law-abiding  people; 

that  is,  by  education  and  repeal.  In  the  case  of 
' prohibition  this  is  all  the  more  difficult  because  the 
movement  has  been  clothed  in  a false  mantle  of 
j righteousness,  by  which  the  real  situation  has  been 
; 149 


150  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

concealed.  The  weakness  of  the  whole  proceeding 
from  the  legal  standpoint  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
its  promoters  deemed  it  necessary  to  amend  the  Con- 
stitution, to  nail  the  flag  of  prohibition  to  the  mast- 
head as  it  were,  beyond  the  reach  of  recall.  If  the 
measure  had  been  wise,  this  would  have  been  un- 
necessary. A law  must  pass  the  test  of  wisdom  to 
survive.  No  form  of  enactment  can  prevent  a 
vicious  law  from  becoming  a dead  letter. 

Law  is  the  accumulated  experience  of  humanity 
codified  for  use  in  the  regulation  of  human  relations. 
All  law  has  its  foundation  in  the  laws  of  nature.  By 
his  inability  to  govern  wisely,  man  has  shown  only 
too  often  that  his  interpretation  of  nature  and  na- 
ture’s requirements  was  at  fault.  In  every  age, 
from  the  dawn  of  history  to  the  present  day,  there 
have  been  periods  when  he  has  been  led  astray  and 
has  forgotten  that  there  are  limits  to  his  lawmaking 
which  nature  has  imposed  and  beyond  which  he  can- 
not go.  Whatever  contradicts  the  fundamental 
naturally  cannot  prosper. 

It  is  becoming  more  and  more  of  a practice  in 
legislation  to  place  the  interest  of  the  community 
above  the  rights  of  the  individual.  We  must  not 
forget  that  the  community  is  made  up  of  individuals 
and  that  any  injury  to  the  latter  may  react  upon  the 
former.  Prohibition  is  a serious  invasion  of  the 
property  rights  of  the  individual.  One  of  the  pre- 


LAW  AND  PERSONAL  LIBERTY  15 1 

dominant  human  instincts  is  our  desire  to  own  and 
enjoy  what  we  have  acquired  as  the  result  of  our 
own  labor.  We  have  this  instinct  in  common  with 
the  lower  animals.  It  is  the  right  of  ownership  with 
all  that  goes  with  it  which  induces  the  squirrel  to 
gather  nuts  for  his  winter  store.  Nature  prescribes 
individual  ownership  of  what  is  necessary  for  individ- 
ual development.  This  is  the  rock  on  which  all 
socialistic  schemes  have  split,  from  More’s  Utopia  to 
Bolshevism.  For  large  numbers  of  men,  unless  a 
spirit  of  almost  inhuman  self-sacrifice  becomes  more 
prevalent  than  we  have  any  reason  to  expect,  will 
never  work  for  a state  or  community  of  all  sorts 
and  conditions,  including  the  shiftless  and  lazy,  as 
they  will  work  for  their  own  interests. 

The  right  of  possession,  the  right  to  own  property, 
is  fundamental  in  the  laws  of  civilized  nations.  Land 
is  the  most  enduring  form  of  property.  The  titles 
to  real  estate  are  jealously  guarded  by  law.  Land  is 
valuable  primarily  for  what  it  will  produce.  The 
right  of  ownership  carries  with  it  the  right  to  dispose 
of  the  products  of  the  soil,  including  alcohol.  That 
there  are  some  people  who  make  an  improper  use  of 
alcohol  is  not  a sufficient  reason  for  preventing  the 
landowner  from  selling  his  product,  thus  depriving 
him  of  a part  of  the  value  of  his  land.  To  prohibit 
the  sale  of  alcohol,  for  the  sake  of  those  who  abuse  it, 
is  no  more  just  or  right  than  it  would  be  to  prevent 


152  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT  j 

the  farmer  from  selling  his  wheat  because  there  are  | 
some  who  injure  themselves  by  overeating.  There  is  i 
an  old  saying  that  man  digs  his  grave  with  his  teeth,  i 
It  has  been  computed  that  for  every  man  who  drinks  | 
himself  to  death  there  are  eleven  who  die  from  over-  i 
eating.  But  we  have  no  constitutional  amendment — ; 

unenforceable,  of  course — to  prohibit  the  sale  of  ) 
meat  or  bread.  The  absurdity  would  be  too  self-  j 
evident  even  for  the  shallowest  type  of  propagandist.  . 
Yet  they  cannot  see  the  absurdity  of  prohibiting  the  I 
sale  of  alcohol,  which  nature  has  made  essential  for  ' 
the  well-being  of  the  human  system.  The  fact  that  I 
a medical  labor  union  has  denied  this  elementary  ' 
scientific  fact — and  then  proceeded  to  profit  finan- 
cially to  an  enormous  extent  by  denying  its  denial  (in 
practice)  and  prescribing  alcohol  for  medicinal  pur- 
poses— does  not  prove  that  nature  has  made  a mis- 
take and  should  be  duly  corrected.  It  simply  proves 
that  the  medical  authorities  made  no  mistake  in 
seeing  that  a monopoly  in  a vital  commodity  would 
be  extremely  lucrative. 

A practical  test  of  the  wisdom  of  any  enactment 
is  to  try  to  put  it  in  operation.  As  a secondary 
though  not  always  reliable  test,  we  may  inquire  as  to 
the  knowledge  and  probity  of  the  legislators  who 
passed  upon  the  law.  It  is  little  to  the  credit  of 
those  responsible  for  the  adoption  of  the  Eighteenth 
Amendment  that  they  ignored  the  failure  of  prohibi- 


LAW  AND  PERSONAL  LIBERTY  153 

tion  when  put  to  a practical  test  in  other  countries 
and  in  sections  of  the  United  States;  nor  does  it 
speak  well  for  their  intelligence  that  they  were  will- 
ing to  disregard  a fundamental  principle  in  our 
government,  that  in  matters  of  intimate  concern  to 
the  individual  and  the  home  the  states  are  better 
fitted  than  the  federal  authorities  to  decide  upon 
suitable  action. 

When  the  Constitution  was  adopted  and  the 
United  States  became  a nation,  the  Founders  rec- 
ognized the  principle  of  states’  rights.  Even  at 
that  time  the  difference  in  climatic  and  other  condi- 
tions made  It  plain  that  there  were  certain  matters 
which  could  only  be  regulated  properly  by  the  states 
themselves.  The  farseeing  wisdom  of  those  builders 
for  future  generations  has  become  increasingly  evi- 
dent with  the  expansion  of  our  territories.  What 
was  but  a fringe  of  states  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard 
has  become  a great  nation,  extending  from  the  At- 
lantic to  the  Pacific,  from  Alaska  to  Florida  and  the 
tropical  Philippines.  The  fact  that  this  expansion 
occurred  during  the  railway  age  prevented  the  far 
greater  differences  of  opinions  and  customs  that 
would  have  been  inevitable  at  an  earlier  period  in 
the  world’s  history.  But  the  differences  that  exist 
cannot  be  ignored  by  statesmen  or  economists,  and 
prohibition  should  certainly  have  been  left  for  regu- 
lation to  the  states,  which  understood  and  could  pro- 


154  the  eighteenth  AMENDMENT 

vide  for  local  conditions  and  opinion.  It  is  typical 
of  the  ignorance  which  surrounded  the  subject  that 
the  legislators  of  the  granger  states  of  the  West 
should  have  presumed  to  pass  on  an  enactment  regu- 
lating the  habits  of  the  manufacturing  and  commer- 
cial population  of  the  East;  that  the  farmers  of 
Kansas  should  attempt  to  tell  the  workers  in  the 
brass  factories  of  Connecticut  or  the  sailors  of 
Rhode  Island  and  Massachusetts  what  they  must  or 
must  not  eat  and  drink.  We  might  as  well  expect 
the  State  of  Florida  to  dictate  to  the  citizens  of 
Alaska  what  they  must  wear  and  at  what  hour  they 
must  go  to  bed.  Nature  is  the  only  authority  whose 
dictation  fits  the  conditions. 

The  extent  of  the  prohibition  propaganda  is  even 
now  perhaps  not  fully  realized.  It  was  limited  only 
by  the  size  of  the  fund  which  the  interests  behind 
the  Anti-Saloon  League  were  willing  to  supply.  We 
can  get  some  idea  of  the  amount  of  money  spent  an- 
nually for  prohibition  purposes  from  the  budget 
which  the  Anti-Saloon  League  gave  out  early  in  1920, 
after  prohibition  had  become  an  accomplished  fact. 
This  budget  carried  the  stupendous  total  of  $27,- 
920,300.  There  is  a good  deal  of  persuasive  force 
in  practically  twenty-eight  millions  of  dollars. 

The  people’s  representatives,  like  the  people  them- 
selves to  a certain  extent,  were  deliberately  cor- 
rupted— not  with  cash,  but  with  sophisms.  For 


1 LAW  AND  PERSONAL  LIBERTY  155 

ij  years  false  information  on  alcohol  has  been  pounded 

I into  the  public,  and  our  legislators  have  absorbed  it. 

■ They  may  have  the  best  intentions  without  having 
i infallible  intelligence.  Corruption  is  corruption 

whether  it  is  of  morals  or  of  mind.  It  was  cor- 
|j  ruption  in  Shakespeare’s  time.  It  was  thus  that  lago 
was  able  to  warp  the  mind  of  Othello.  It  is  cor- 

■ ruption  to-day.  Are  we  going  to  permit  laws  passed 
by  such  methods  to  stand  upon  the  statute  books? 

! There  is  no  such  thing  as  personal  liberty  if  we  must 
be  constantly  on  our  guard  against  this  kind  of  legis- 
lation. 

Let  us  look  a little  more  closely  into  the 
methods  by  which  these  modern  lagos  were  able  to 
sway  popular  opinion  and  influence  our  legislators. 
* We  can  pass  over  the  appeals  which  were  made  to 

II  the  lowest  side  of  their  natures,  for  although  stories 
" of  intimidation  and  coercion  are  current,  in  a na- 
! tional  movement  such  as  this  these  would  have  but 
1 a limited  influence.  That  bribery  may  have  been 

used  we  will  not  question.  We  are  only  too  familiar 
I with  the  temptations  that  beset  our  public  officials, 
and  we  have  become  accustomed  to  almost  daily  dis- 
I closures  of  graft  in  government  departments. 
Where  there  are  so  many  professional  politicians  we 
! must  expect  some  corruption  of  a gross  kind.  Law- 
I makers  are  not  the  only  lawbreakers:  every  class 
' has  its  objectionable  elements.  But  those  who  could 


156  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

be  reached  by  admittedly  fraudulent  methods  were  in  ji!) 
the  minority.  A large  majority  of  the  men  who  (f. 
voted  for  prohibition  were  either  convinced  that  it  k 
would  be  for  the  good  of  the  country  or  were  willing  at; 
to  give  it  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  and  let  it  have  a 
trial.  If  it  proved  a failure,  that  would  be  the  surest  c; 
way  to  end  the  agitation  among  their  constituents  at  c: 
home.  31; 

In  bringing  legislators  to  this  point  of  view,  the 
stand  which  medical  authorities  had  taken  against  ta 
alcohol  was  the  deciding  factor.  When  they  wrote  1; 
the  word  “Poison”  across  the  label  of  the  whisky  i 
bottle,  it  accomplished  far  more  for  prohibition  than  t 
all  the  other  propaganda  put  together.  No  more  t 
convincing  argument  could  have  been  used,  especially  r 
among  those  fathers  and  mothers  whose  children  ^ 
were  just  approaching  manhood  or  womanhood,  v 
The  father  was  besought  to  save  his  boys  from  the  t 
temptations  that  he  as  a young  man  had  been  sub-  ; 
jected  to.  It  possibly  never  occurred  to  him  that  it  - 
would  be  better  to  teach  children  how  to  use  alcohol  : 
properly,  just  as  they  are  taught  to  ride  and  swim,  or  i 
to  drive  an  automobile.  Would  it  not  have  been  • 
better  for  the  indulgent  mother  to  teach  her  children  ; 
self-restraint  rather  than  turn  their  moral  and  phys- 
ical welfare  over  to  the  United  States  Government,  ; 
as  if  they  were  foundlings  of  the  nation?  Will  our  ; 
women,  now  that  they  have  received  the  respon- 


LAW  AND  PERSONAL  LIBERTY  157 

” sibility  of  the  suffrage,  attempt  to  evade  their  natural 
(■duty  of  caring  for  their  own  offspring?  What  will 
the  the  effect  upon  the  characters  of  future  gener- 
Sations  if  this  policy  of  parental  suicide  is  continued? 

^ It  was  among  the  women  of  the  country  that  the 
(medical  propaganda  was  most  effective.  The 
t mother  in  caring  for  her  children  through  their  early 
illnesses  has  come  to  rely  on  the  family  physician, 

( and  the  trust  which  he  has  personally  inspired  has 
taught  her  a respect  for  official  medical  opinion. 
The  practising  physician  stands  between  the  people 
and  the  medical  politicians.  His  word  goes  unques- 
tioned because  of  general  ignorance  of  the  fact  that 
his  medical  efficiency  is  limited  by  a strict  control 
exercised  by  the  leaders  of  his  union.  To  use  an 
expression  of  one  of  the  shining  lights  of  the  pro- 
fession, the  practising  physician  is  only  the  plumber 
jwho  uses  the  lead  pipe  which  is  given  him.  The 
[practitioner  is  exploited  by  the  leaders  of  organized 
medicine  just  as  the  ironworkers,  the  carpenters  and 
masons  are  exploited  by  the  Sam  Parks  and  Bob 
Brindells  of  the  building  trade.  The  disastrous 
3 results  to  medical  practice  are  every  day  more  ap- 
parent. 

You  can  scarcely  have  forgotten  the  great  influenza 
■ epidemic,  when  the  people  died  by  thousands  and  the 
i dead  lay  unburied  in  the  receiving  vaults  and  under- 
taking establishments  throughout  the  country.  Long 


) 


158  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT  * 

before  the  outbreak  of  the  pandemic  science  had  ^ 
mastered  the  disease,  but  the  knowledge  was  sup-  j 
pressed  by  the  medical  ring  for  selfish  reasons.  Do  | 
you  think  these  men  would  hesitate  at  such  a little  i 
thing  as  conveying  false  information  on  alcohol  to  ■ 
our  legislatures  if  it  served  their  own  ends?  When  | 
we  realize  the  toll  which  disease  is  exacting  from  old  j 
and  young  alike,  when  we  think  of  a life  like  Theo-  j 
dore  Roosevelt’s  sacrificed  to  medical  ignorance  or  » 
indifference,  it  is  only  too  apparent  that  new  methods  1 
are  badly  needed,  and  that  the  revolt  against  the  j 
medical  organization,  which  the  prohibition  contro- : 
versy  has  so  largely  developed,  must  not  end  until 
present  evils  have  been  rooted  out  and  the  health  of  | 
the  nation  has  been  placed  in  safer  hands. 


CHAPTER  XX 


THE  LABOR  UNION 

In  a country  as  large  as  the  United  States  there 
are  naturally  many  and  varied  interests,  continually 
increasing  with  the  development  of  the  nation.  What 
was  once  chiefly  an  agricultural  community  is  now 
divided  into  urban,  suburban  and  farming  districts, 
railway  and  mining  centres,  mill  towns,  etc.,  with 
different  problems  to  meet  and  different  ways  of 
looking  at  daily  life.  Each  interest  has  grown  in 
importance,  and  this  has  been  reflected  in  legislation. 
Our  industrial  life  has  also  been  split  up  into  its 
classes, — capital  and  labor,  the  employer  and  the 
employed,  the  producer  and  the  consumer.  Too 
often  these  classes  have  clashed,  and  they  have  lost 
sight  of  the  fact  that  the  welfare  of  the  country  as  a 
whole  depends  upon  the  cooperation  of  all  sections 
and  groups. 

No  interest  has  grown  in  recent  years  as  has 
the  labor  union,  which  is  largely  a development  of  a 
democratic  form  of  government.  The  professional 
politician  has  turned  from  the  organization  of  politi- 
cal bodies  to  the  more  profitable  occupation  of  organ- 
izing labor.  Some  undesirable  features  have  fol- 


i6o  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


lowed,  and  the  legitimate  purposes  of  cooperative 
effort  have  not  always  been  adhered  to.  Labor 
unionism,  so  far  as  it  really  helps  the  worker,  is  of 
course  a good  thing.  If  it  interferes  with  the  rights 
of  others,  as  so  often  happens,  it  must  be  condemned. 
Where  it  runs  counter  to  clear  economic  laws  it 
becomes  impossible,  and  the  sooner  this  phase  of  the 
situation  is  cleared  up  the  better  for  all  concerned. 

A brief  review  of  certain  aspects  of  trade  unionism 
will  bring  out  their  bearing  on  the  prohibition  ques- 
tion. 

The  introduction  of  machinery,  with  its  many 
labor-saving  devices,  has  brought  new  problems  into 
our  industrial  life.  The  greater  output  which  can 
now  be  obtained  has  increased  the  value,  or  let  us 
say  the  power,  of  capital.  This  in  turn  has  put  a 
premium  on  thrift  and  has  added  to  the  hardships 
of  the  lazy  and  improvident.  For  capital  is  nothing 
more  than  wages  or  some  other  form  of  income 
which  the  receiver  has  been  able  to  save  and  then 
apply  to  lighten  the  task  of  the  w'orker.  The  pres- 
ent vast  accumulations  of  capital  are  both  the  result 
and  the  cause  of  efficiency. 

We  have  only  to  look  back  to  the  early  days  of  the 
American  Colonies  to  realize  the  striking  changes 
which  have  occurred  through  the  development  of  our 
national  industries.  At  the  time  w'hen  the  Virginia 
and  Plymouth  Colonies  had  become  firmly  estab- 


THE  LABOR  UNION 


i6i 


llshed,  a majority  of  the  colonists  were  landowners 
and  were  able  to  support  themselves,  if  need  were, 
upon  the  products  of  their  own  land.  The  early 
settler  was  able  to  build  his  own  house,  raise  his  own 
food,  and  supply  his  own  fuel  and  part  of  his  cloth- 
ing. His  children,  when  old  enough,  furnished  him 
with  additional  labor.  He  asked  little  from  his 
neighbor  except  companionship  and  mutual  protec- 
tion against  their  common  enemies. 

With  the  growth  of  the  colonies,  trades  and  pro- 
fessions sprang  up.  The  man  who  devotes  himself 
to  any  one  occupation,  as  the  cobbler  or  carpenter, 
can  do  a better  job  and  in  a shorter  time  than  the 
man  who  occasionally  turns  his  hand  to  that  par- 
ticular trade.  The  specialists  invested  their  earnings 
in  better  tools  (their  capital)  or  in  labor-saving 
devices,  as  in  the  case  of  the  miller  who  built  his  own 
mill.  Thus  it  became  advantageous  for  the  land- 
owner  to  employ  these  expert  workmen,  who  could 
do  better  and  yet  cheaper  work  than  he  could  do  for 
himself.  (What  would  the  colonists  have  thought  if 
a Plumb  had  arisen  among  them  with  a plan  to  turn 
the  mill  which  the  miller  had  built  with  his  own  hands 
over  to  his  employees?)  But  it  was  not  always 
profitable  for  the  employer  to  have  work  done  for 
him,  because  there  were  idle  moments  in  his  own  day 
which  would  have  been  lost  if  he  could  not  employ 
them  in  doing  some  of  the  things  usually  assigned  to 


1 62  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


others.  No  workman,  however  expert,  can  compete 
against  the  idle  time  of  his  employer.  It  may  sur- 
prise some  of  the  dwellers  in  our  cities  to  hear  that 
many  farmers  to-day,  in  addition  to  raising  and 
marketing  their  money  crop,  produce  most  of  their 
own  food,  even  raising  and  grinding  their  own  flour 
and  meal  and  curing  their  own  meats,  and  also  doing 
their  own  mason  and  carpenter  work  and  various 
other  things  to  fill  in  the  spare  time. 

The  development  of  labor-saving  devices  is  every 
day  making  it  more  difficult  for  the  individual  to 
compete  with  the  machine,  because  his  own  time  is 
becoming  more  valuable.  Take  as  an  example  the 
service  which  is  rendered  by  the  railroads.  Compute 
the  expense  of  a trip  from  New  York  to  Boston  on 
foot  or  on  horseback — the  time  lost,  the  hotel  bills 
incurred — and  compare  this  with  the  cost  of  the 
railroad  ticket.  Such  time-saving  devices  have  added 
to  the  importance  and  power  of  the  labor  operating 
them.  But  no  industrial  union  has  ever  attempted 
to  prevent  the  individual  doing  his  own  work  himself. 
He  may  be  denied  the  assistance  of  organized  labor, 
but  that  is  as  far  as  they  have  ventured  to  go.  If  a 
man  wishes  to  walk  to  Boston  he  is  still  at  liberty  to 
do  so.  It  is  vastly  important  to  the  development 
of  our  national  life  that  the  individual  should  be  free 
to  act  for  himself,  not  merely  for  the  encouragement 
of  initiative  and  invention,  and  so  on,  but  because 


THE  LABOR  UNION 


163 

the  standard  of  organized  effort  is  thus  raised  or  at 
least  maintained.  Without  the  bracing  effect"  of  in- 
dividualism, combinations  would  often  deteriorate  as 
the  result  of  the  very  advantages  they  can  command. 

It  has  remained  for  the  medical  union  to  violate 
this  principle.  They  have  not  only  endeavored  to 
control  the  practice  of  medicine,  but  have  also  tried 
through  legislation  to  force  their  services  upon  the 
individual  by  placing  curative  agents  beyond  his 
reach,  as  has  been  done  in  the  case  of  alcohol.  As 
some  perhaps  may  question  the  propriety  of  putting 
associations  which  have  always  posed  as  scientific  in 
the  same  category  as  the  organizations  of  ordinary 
labor,  it  should  be  remembered  that  they  themselves 
have  sought  this  classification.  In  the  Bremer 
County  case,  which  was  carried  up  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Iowa,  the  medical  organization  successfully 
defended  itself  by  pleading  the  right  of  “labor”  to 
organize.  And  further,  their  strikes,  boycotts  and 
other  labor  union  methods  have  been  fully  exposed 
in  courts  of  this  country  and  Great  Britain. 

The  industrial  unions  have  followed  blindly  the 
lure  of  higher  wages  held  out  to  them  by  their 
leaders.  They  did  not  see  that  by  standardizing 
labor  and  thus  putting  a premium  on  poor  workman- 
ship and  a lowered  output,  they  were  increasing  the 
cost  of  necessities  to  themselves  as  well  as  to  the  rest 
of  the  country.  They  have  only  recently  begun  to 


i64  the  eighteenth  AMENDMENT 

realize  that  wages  can  be  forced  so  high  that  they 
cannot  afford  to  accept  them.  The  laboring  man  i 
is  not  an  economist;  he  cannot  be  blamed  for  his  | 
short-sightedness.  But  it  is  one  thing  (and  quite  j 
serious  enough)  for  the  labor  unions  to  attempt  to  • 
interfere  with  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  and 
regulate  the  market  for  labor.  It  is  another  thing,  i 
and  altogether  too  serious,  for  a medical  union,  in  1 
its  frenzied  efforts  to  control  the  profession,  to  bar 
the  advance  of  science  in  the  effective  treatment  of 
disease.  Even  the  most  thoughtless  or  ignorant  can  | 
understand  the  harm  resulting  from  this  phase  of 
labor  unionism.  And  the  laboring  man  has  been  the 
greatest  sufferer. 

Let  me  ask  you.  Master  Carpenter:  Do  you  I 
think  of  the  bonnie  golden-haired  daughter  who  used  | 
to  meet  you  at  the  gate  of  an  evening  to  take  your 
dinner  pail  when  you  returned  from  your  work?  Of 
course  you  do.  She  has  seldom  been  out  of  your 
thoughts  since  the  day  when  you  took  her  little  body 
to  the  cemetery.  It  was  a labor  union  that  deprived 
you,  deprived  your  physician,  of  what  might  have 
saved  her  life. — And  you,  Mr.  Coal  Miner.  You 
have  given  the  country  a good  deal  of  trouble  in 
recent  years.  Do  you  think  of  that  young  wife  so 
soon  to  become  a mother  who  was  carried  off  in  the 
great  influenza  pandemic?  Do  you  know  that  it  was 
medical  ignorance  that  was  responsible  for  the  high 


THE  LABOR  UNION  165 

death  rate  among  pregnant  women,  and  that  a labor 
union  kept  the  knowledge  of  proper  treatment  from 
the  physicians  of  the  country? — And  you,  wives  of 
the  trainmen  whose  leaders  held  a pistol  to  the  head 
of  Congress  to  force  the  Adamson  Law  upon  the 
country.  You  were  rather  proud  of  that  achieve- 
ment, were  you  not?  Many  of  your  sons  died  in 
the  epidemics  of  the  army  camps.  Your  loss  would 
have  been  easier  to  bear  if  your  boys  had  had  the 
glory  of  a soldier’s  death  upon  the  field  of  battle. 
But  to  be  stricken  down  like  rats  in  a camp  epidemic 
was  hard,  very  hard.  Do  you  know  that  it  was  a 
labor  union  in  control  of  the  medical  departments  of 
the  government  that  stood  in  the  path  of  science,  and 
so  was  able  to  continue  improper  treatments  that 
have  been  failing  in  these  diseases  for  two  thousand 
years  or  more?  When  you  talk  with  your  Plumbs 
about  unionizing  our  transportation  system,  look 
first  and  see  what  the  union  has  done  for  our  medical 
departments. 

When  the  opponents  of  national  prohibition  under- 
took a careful  inquiry  into  the  various  forces  behind 
the  movement,  the  medical  departments  at  Washing- 
ton were  one  of  the  first  subjects  of  investigation. 
What  followed  was  almost  beyond  belief.  They 
found  men,  American  citizens,  wearing  the  uniform 
of  the  United  States  Army  in  war  time,  obeying  the 
rules  of  their  union  but  defying  the  laws  and  the  Con- 


1 66  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


stitution  of  the  United  States.  These  men  were 
permitting  disease  to  go  unchecked  rather  than  inter- 
fere with  the  interests  of  a private  organization  of 
which  they  were  members.  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
the  country  has  been  flooded  with  false  information 
on  alcohol  when  the  people  must  rely  for  their  med- 
ical knowledge  on  public  servants  such  as  these  ? 


CHAPTER  XXI 


ENFORCEMENT 

Can  national  prohibition  be  really  enforced? 

A fundamental  error  in  dealing  with  the  liquor 
problem  is  the  conception  of  alcohol  as  a habit-form- 
ing drug.  The  prohibitionist  has  all  along  held  to 
the  theory  that  once  alcohol  was  abolished,  the  re- 
generation of  the  drunkard  would  follow  automat- 
ically. If  this  were  true,  the  enforcement  of  the 
Eighteenth  Amendment  would  be  a simple  matter 
compared  with  the  problem  with  which  the  country 
is  now  faced.  But  if  we  accept  the  more  enlightened 
view  that  alcohol  is  a necessary  food,  enforcement 
becomes  all  but  impossible.  No  one  will  stand  for 
compulsory  starvation.  The  hunger  striker  jmay 
accept  self-imposed  starvation  for  the  sake  of  a 
principle,  but  no  one,  if  he  can  help  himself,  will 
permit  starvation  to  be  forced  upon  him  by  others. 
Therefore,  to  enforce  prohibition  the  necessity  for 
alcohol  must  be  done  away  with. 

We  shall  have  a better  understanding  of  the  en- 
forcement problem  if  we  go  straight  to  the  question 
of  the  reformation  of  the  drunkard.  Most  people 

are  more  or  less  familiar  with  the  methods  employed 

167 


1 68  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

in  the  institutions  for  the  reform  of  inebriates.  When 
the  chronic  drunkard  takes  refuge  in  one  of  these 
asylums,  he  is  first  weaned  from  the  alcoholic  drink. 
Sugars  are  substituted,  and  his  system  is  accustomed 
to  making  its  own  alcohol.  His  body  is  built  up  by 
wholesome  food,  rational  recreation,  fresh  air  and 
exercise.  Then  the  attempt  is  made  to  create  within 
the  patient  an  aversion  to  alcohol.  In  some  of  these 
cases  the  cure  is  permanent,  in  others  the  drunkard 
returns  to  his  old  habits.  Where  the  institutions 
have  failed  is  in  losing  sight  of  the  fact  that  to  cure 
alcoholism  permanently,  the  need  for  alcohol  must 
be  eliminated. 

In  many  instances,  alcoholism  is  brought  about 
through  other  habits  of  the  individual.  The  old 
drink  habit  is  compelling,  but  where  we  have  a com- 
bination of  this  with  a crying  need  of  the  body,  we 
have  a force  which  it  is  almost  impossible  to  control. 
Take,  for  example,  the  son  of  wealthy  parents  with 
no  special  interest  in  life  except  his  own  amusement. 
His  existence  becomes  monotonous,  and  it  has  al- 
ready been  shown  that  monotony,  by  its  effect  on  the 
nervous  system,  contributes  to  the  need  for  alcohol. 
When  such  a man  has  fallen  into  the  drink  habit  and 
has  then  “taken  the  cure,”  the  chances  are  that, 
unless  he  finds  some  new  interest  in  life,  he  will 
return  to  his  old  indulgences.  If  not,  the  nerves 
may  become  affected  and  the  system  laid  open  to 


ENFORCEMENT  169 

attack  by  disease.  Dr.  Fisk  tells  us,  “In  the  expe- 
rience of  the  forty-three  (life  insurance)  companies, 
among  those  who  had  taken  a cure,  but  remained 
total  abstainers  up  to  the  time  of  acceptance,  the 
mortality  was  35  per  cent,  above  the  normal.”* 
When  we  have  a better  understanding  of  the  liquor 
question,  the  reformation  of  the  drunkard  will  be 
easier.  But  the  present  problem  of  reforming  the 
whole  United  States  along  the  lines  laid  down  by  the 
prohibitionist  is  one  which  staggers  the  imagination. 
We  must  either  choose  between  alcohol  or  disease, 
or  readjust  the  lives  of  all  our  people.  The  brass 
worker  must  leave  the  foundry  for  some  less  nerve- 
racking  employment.  The  sailor  must  give  up  his 
voyages.  Disease,  worry,  fear,  must  all  be  elimin- 
ated, and  then,  perhaps,  prohibition  can  be  enforced. 
Instead  of  prohibition  bringing  on  the  millennium,  we 
must  first  have  the  millennium  before  we  can  expect 
prohibition. 

The  situation  as  it  stands  to-day  is  that  a necessary 
commodity,  a food  which  the  people  must  have,  has 
been  taken  away  from  them  and  put  in  the  hands  of 
agents  of  the  government  to  be  doled  out  as  they  see 
fit.  The  natural  result  has  been  that  the  price  of 
alcohol  has  risen  to  an  abnormal  figure.  When  a 
condition  like  this  arises  we  shall  always  find  people 

* “Alcohol — Its  Relation  to  Human  Efficiency  and  Lon- 
gevity” ; p.  25. 


170  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

who  are  willing  to  risk  the  penalties  of  the  law  in 
order  to  reap  a golden  harvest  only  too  easily 
obtained.  But  in  the  present  case  there  is  the  fur- 
ther element  that  as  so  many  of  our  citizens  look 
upon  prohibition  as  an  encroachment  upon  their  per- 
sonal liberties,  the  lawbreaker  is  finding  encourage- 
ment from  all  classes  of  society.  Men  of  the  highest 
character  and  attainment,  statesmen,  bankers,  law- 
yers, authors,  artists,  business  men  and  day  laborers, 
all  alike,  are  not  only  countenancing  these  law- 
breakers, but  they  are  violating  the  law  themselves. 
They  deny  the  right  and  the  power  of  the  govern- 
ment to  supervise  their  personal  habits  and  manner 
of  life.  There  were  many  who  thought,  because 
they  had  given  up  alcohol  at  one  time  or  another  and 
had  felt  the  better  for  it,  that  they  would  welcome 
prohibition.  They  did  not  realize  the  difference  be- 
tween abstinence  by  mental  resolve  and  an  absti- 
nence forced  upon  them.  Nor  did  they  know  that  in 
many  instances  their  fall  from  the  water  wagon  was 
due  to  a need  of  the  body  which  they  did  not  know 
how  to  control.  And  so  there  are  many  good  people 
who,  while  believing  in  prohibition  theoretically, 
are  now  drinking  more  than  is  good  for  them  out 
of  protest.  As  Mr.  Irvin  S.  Cobb  has  said  so 
characteristically  and  exactly,  prohibition  simply 
prohibits  sobriety  among  people  who  would  other- 
wise be  sober. 


ENFORCEMENT 


171 

The  enforcement  law  has  brought  with  it  a law- 
lessness on  the  part  of  the  people  never  before  known 
in  the  annals  of  the  nation.*  Violations  of  the 
Volstead  Act  have  been  followed  by  a wave  of  crime 
which  can  be  traced  directly  to  prohibition.  The 
crimes  committed  vary  in  seriousness  from  infrac- 
tions of  the  rules  of  the  road  by  speeding  auto- 
mobiles of  the  rum  runners,  to  the  most  callous 
murder.  Between  these  two  extremes  are  all  sorts 
and  kinds  of  criminal  offences,- — forgery,  counter- 
feiting, smuggling,  blackmail,  extortion,  illicit  dis- 
tillation, burglary  and  highway  robbery,  the  sale  of 
deadly  concoctions,  and  the  debauching  of  public 
officials.  The  details  have  appeared  repeatedly  in 
the  newspapers  and  magazines.  The  reader  may 
therefore  be  spared  any  repetition.  The  corruption 
i of  government  agents  is  indeed  a serious  phase  of  the 
situation,  for  it  has  added  to  the  power  of  the  corrupt 
politician.  The  practical  politician  is  familiar  with 
the  numerous  opportunities  for  illicit  profits  which 
are  always  connected  with  measures  for  the  regula- 
tion of  public  conduct.  The  health  boards  and  the 
building  departments  of  many  of  our  cities  have 

* William  H.  Moran,  Chief  of  the  Secret  Service  Bureau 
at  Washington,  testifying  before  the  Appropriations  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Representatives,  stated  that  the  year 
1920  (the  first  year  of  constitutional  prohibition)  was  the 
greatest  criminal  year  in  the  history  of  the  secret  service. 


172  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

been  hotbeds  of  graft,  but  as  a breeder  of  nation- 
wide corruption  no  previous  legislation  has  ever 
equalled  the  Volstead  Act.  It  would  be  interesting  to 
know  how  many  votes  were  gained  for  the  Eight- 
eenth Amendment  by  the  prospects  of  the  rich 
graft  to  be  obtained  in  its  enforcement.  If  there  is 
anyone  who  doubts  this,  let  him  look  at  some  of  the 
characters  appointed  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of 
the  law — men  so  low  that  it  has  been  an  easy  matter 
for  the  crook  and  impostor  to  Impersonate  them. 
Take  the  case  of  the  enforcement  agent  who  killed 
a chauffeur  during  a “wet”  raid  in  New  York  City. 
His  record  is  one  of  a long  series  of  crimes.  His 
early  offences  include  petty  larceny  and  the  passing 
of  worthless  checks.  He  served  four  years  and 
seven  months  of  an  eight-year  sentence  in  the  In- 
diana State  Penitentiary.  He  then  broke  his  parole 
and  came  East.  He  was  convicted  of  robbery  and 
sent  to  Sing  Sing  prison,  where  he  served  a six- 
year  term.  His  last  offence  was  killing  the  chauffeur, 
for  which  he  was  tried  for  murder  in  the  first  de- 
gree, and  acquitted,  through  the  able  defence  of  a 
United  States  District  Attorney.  Even  after  his 
record  was  known,  he  was  carried  on  the  payroll  of 
the  United  States.  While  this  may  be  an  extreme 
case,  it  shows  the  type  of  men  to  whom  the  govern-  ^ 
ment  intrusted  the  mission  of  improving  our  morals, 


ENFORCEMENT 


173 

for  prohibition  is  still  being  bolstered  up  by  this  plea. 

We  are  now  beginning  to  understand  the  reason 
why  so  many  of  the  states  that  have  gone  dry,  stay 
dry.  The  Eighteenth  Amendment  has  created  a new 
brand  of  prohibitionist,  the  ex-saloon  keeper  and  the 
cheap  politician,  with  their  long  retinue  of  heelers 
who  are  realizing  enormous  profits  through  the 
illegal  sale  of  alcoholic  liquors  at  fancy  prices.  If 
an  attempt  were  made  to  repeal  the  amendment, 
these  men  would  be  found  lined  up  in  its  defence 
with  the  forces  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League.  All  this 
has  added  to  the  public  resentment,  which  has  been 
growing  steadily  since  the  passage  of  the  enforce- 
ment legislation.  The  people  of  the  states  where 
the  largest  part  of  our  population  is  located  have  not 
favored  prohibition.  This  is  true  of  nearly  all  the 
' original  thirteen  states.  Back  in  the  ’fifties,  thirteen 
northern  states  adopted  prohibition,  but  they  soon 
.abandoned  it,  with  the  exception  of  Maine,  where 
with  the  aid  of  the  bootleggers  the  prohibitionists 
were  able  to  retain  the  statute.  An  analysis  of  the 
I vote  on  national  prohibition  shows  that  in  states 
with  a total  population  of  over  63,000,000  people 
there  either  has  been  no  recent  expression  of  popular 
opinion,  or  the  people  have  voted  against  it.  In 
I jome  instances,  legislators  chosen  at  the  same  election 
i||  n which  th^people  of  the  state  voted  against  prohi- 
)ition,  reversed  the  popular  decision  and  voted  for 


174  the  eighteenth  AMENDMENT 

the  Eighteenth  Amendment.  There  is  much  the  \ 
same  feeling  against  prohibition  in  these  states  as 
there  was  in  our  forefathers’  time  against  the  Stamp 
Act, — with  this  difference,  that  the  Stamp  Act  was 
imposed  by  a government  in  which  our  people  had  no  ' 
voice,  while  prohibition  was  adopted  by  the  very  men  j. 
whom  the  people  elected,  and  they  feel  that  these  j 
men  have  betrayed  them. 

To  the  resentment  of  the  wets  has  been  added  a ' 
growing  resentment  on  the  part  of  the  drys.  Many  • 
a prohibitionist  believed  that  prohibition  would'' 
stamp  out  drunkenness.  He  is  now  beginning  to 
realize  that  in  its  practical  application,  at  any  rate, 
prohibition  is  a failure.  Light  wines  and  beers  have 
been  almost  done  away  with.  Whisky,  gin  and  other 
beverages  of  high  alcoholic  content  have  taken  their  ^ 
place.  Whereas  before  prohibition  these  high  proof 
liquors  were  bought  largely  by  the  drink,  they  are' 
now  purchased  by  the  quart,  the  gallon  or  the  case. 
Quite  often,  when  once  a bottle  is  opened,  it  is  not 
put  away  until  it  has  been  emptied. 

The  records  of  our  police  courts  and  hospitals  are 
the  best  evidence  of  the  futility  of  the  Eighteenth, 
Amendment  as  a temperance  measure.  When  na-  - 
tional  prohibition  first  went  into  effect,  there  was  a 
temporary  falling  off  in  the  number  of  recorded' 
cases  of  drunkenness,  because  the  regular  channels 
by  which  alcoholic  liquors  had  been  obtained  ran  dry.. 


ENFORCEMENT 


175 


sit  was  not  long,  however,  before  new  sources  of 
[supply  were  found.  As  the  people  began  to  adjust 
I themselves  to  the  change,  the  fact  was  recorded 
I in  an  increasing  number  of  cases  of  alcoholism.  The 
p conditions  in  New  York  City,  the  largest  city  in  the 
I Union,  are  typical  of  those  in  all  parts  of  the  country 
where  prohibition  has  found  no  popular  support. 

The  following  is  the  record  of  the  arraignments 
in  the  city  magistrates’  courts  for  the  first  seven 
months  of  constitutional  prohibition : 

Month  Borough  of  Manhattan  New  York  City 


January 

39 

67 

February 

65 

152 

March 

181 

342 

April 

214 

423 

May 

249 

501 

June 

244 

471 

July 

227 

495 

' For  the  quarter  ending  December  31,  1919,  the 
. total  number  of  arraignments  was  936.  During  the 
I quarter  ending  June  30,  1920,  1395  cases  were 

! arraigned. 

The  hospital  figures  tell  the  same  story.  Here  is 
the  record  of  the  cases  of  alcoholism  admitted  to  the 

I wards  of  Bellevue  Hospital,  Manhattan,  and  Kings 
County  Hospital,  Brooklyn,  for  the  first  nine  months 
of  the  years  1919  and  1920  :* 

* War-time  prohibition  went  into  effect  on  July  l,  1919; 
constitutional  prohibition  on  January  16,  1920. 


176  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


Bellevue  Hospital 


Month 

1919 

1920 

January 

244 

103 

February 

209 

49 

March 

226 

94 

April 

228 

99 

May 

272 

1 10 

June 

209 

113 

July 

182 

125 

August 

124 

166 

September 

1 16 

155 

Kings  County  Hospital 

Month 

1919 

1920 

January 

114 

27 

February 

88 

1 1 

March 

76 

25 

April 

82 

47 

May 

77 

53 

June 

63 

53 

July 

SO 

59 

August  I to  Aug.  19 

33 

32 

August  19  to  Sep.  21 

40 

93 

Here  is  a summary  of  a report  by  a special  inves- 
tigator for  Leslie* s Weekly,  after  a careful  survey  of 
conditions  throughout  the  country: 

“It  is  estimated  that  two  in  every  five  homes  of 
the  land  have  their  own  private  stills  or  beer- 
brewing apparatus. 

“In  New  York  anyone  with  a friend  and  the 
price  can  obtain  booze  by  the  glass  or  in  quantity. 


ENFORCEMENT 


177 

The  same  is  true  of  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  Cincinnati, 
San  Francisco — all  of  the  larger  cities. 

“Despite  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  there  is 
more  drunkenness  in  the  United  States  to-day 
than  ever  before.  Drinking  is  done  in  secret  and 
.surreptitiously,  and  yet  the  police  blotters  in  nearly 
every  city  reveal  an  increase  in  the  number  of 
arrests  for  drunkenness. 

“In  Philadelphia  the  police  records  show  300 
per  cent,  more  arrests  for  intoxication  from  July 
I to  November  i than  for  the  same  period  last 
year  and  prior  to  the  prohibition  enactment. 

“Twenty  million  quarts  of  whisky  entered  the 
United  States  from  Canada  through  Detroit  alone, 
from  January  i to  September  i of  this  year.” 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  there  are  grave 
doubts  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  law.  The  stronger 
this  feeling  grows,  the  more  difficult  the  enforcement 
problem  becomes. 

What  have  the  men  whose  duty  it  is  to  enforce 
prohibition  to  say  on  the  subject?  Mr.  James  F. 
Shevlin,  supervising  prohibition  agent  for  the  New 
York  district,  in  a published  statement  was  quoted  as 
saying:  “I  say  that  prohibition  is  being  enforced. 
If  a man,  in  order  to  get  a drink,  is  compelled  to  go 
after  it  by  stealth  and  to  pay  enormous  prices  for 
the  ‘drinks,  isn’t  that  prohibition?”  That,  Mr. 


I 


178  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

Shevlin,  is  the  prohibition  of  the  bootlegger  and  his 
confederate,  the  corrupt  politician,  but  it  is  not  con- 
stitutional prohibition.  Mr.  Shevlin  was  transferred  j 
shortly  after  this  statement  was  made.  Mr.  Frank 
L.  Boyd,  who  succeeded  him  and  who  has  since  re- 
signed, described  enforcement  of  the  Volstead  Act 
as  “a  thankless  and  a hopeless  task.”  He  has  given 
some  idea  of  the  difficulties  of  enforcement  in  a 
statement  which  has  appeared  in  the  press: 

‘‘We  have  two  hundred  enforcement  officers  in 
this  state.  The  federal  government’s  appropria- 
tion for  enforcement  of  the  Volstead  Act  is 
$5,000,000.  We  have  twenty  men  to  cover  the 
St.  Lawrence  River  front  and  another  twenty  to 
guard  all  of  Lake  Erie.  It  would  take  the  entire 
First  Division  to  begin  to  patrol  this  state’s  water 
front  and  end  smuggling.  We  have  one  hundred 
and  ten  enforcement  agents  in  New  York  City.  | 
There  are  something  like  12,000  policemen  in  | 
New  York  City,  and  yet  they  are  not  able  to  stop  | 
burglaries  and  robberies  with  the  undivided  sup-  i 
port  of  the  city.  Yet  a hundred  and  ten  men  are  < 
trying  to  enforce  the  liquor  law,  which  It  appears  ’ 
most  of  the  town  does  not  care  much  for.” 

Our  own  experience  is  similar  to  that  of  all  coun-  r 
tries  In  which  prohibition  has  been  attempted.  In 
China,  it  produced  a nation  of  opium  users.  In 


ENFORCEMENT 


179 


Sweden,  nation-wide  prohibition  was  abandoned,  be- 
cause it  was  found  that  it  resulted  in  home-distillation 
to  such  an  extent  that  individual  inebriety  gave  place 
to  family  drunkenness.  Twenty-three  years  after 
Kansas  went  dry,  Carrie  Nation  began  her  crusade 
against  the  saloons  of  that  state.  During  the  next 
four  years  she  made  a world-wide  reputation  as  a 
reformer  by  wielding  her  hatchet  in  wrecking  the 
barrooms  of  Kansas. 

Prohibition,  under  the  Volstead  Act,  has  followed 
a course  which  must  have  been  foreseen  by  anyone 
familiar  with  the  body’s  need  for  alcohol.  We  can- 
not doubt  that  present  conditions  were  foreseen  by 
the  astute  politicians  of  the  medical  ring.  The  more 
the  scandal  grows  and  the  worse  conditions  become, 
the  more  disposed  the  people  will  be  to  insist  on  a 
modification  of  the  law  which  will  offer  them  some 
relief.  As  for  the  prohibitionist,  if  he  cannot  have 
a bone-dry  country,  he  must  accept  modified  prohi- 
bition as  the  next  best  thing.  Such  a plan  has  al- 
ready been  suggested.  It  has  been  proposed  that 
the  government  purchase  all  the  remaining  whisky 
stocks  in  the  country  at  a cost  variously  estimated  at 
from  $100,000,000  to  $500,000,000  of  the  people’s 
money,  and  turn  them  over  to  the  physicians  to  dis- 
pense. This  might  not  end  bootlegging  or  home- 
distillation.  With  the  people  in  their  present  mood, 
and  with  the  experience  they  have  acquired,  these 


i8o  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


could  only  be  stopped  ,at  a cost  which  no  nation 
could  afford  to  pay  in  defiance  of  the  wishes  and 
resolute  opposition  of  so  many  of  its  citizens.  But 
the  transaction  would  lower  the  price  of  whisky  and 
increase  the  popularity,  power  and  emoluments  of 
the  physician. 

Here  is  the  plan  as  outlined  in  the  press : 

a.  That  the  Internal  Revenue  Department  be 
given  authority  to  establish,  in  all  thickly  pop- 
ulated districts,  as  many  government  stations  as 
may  be  deemed  necessary  for  the  sale  of  spirits. 

b.  That  the  spirits  sold  by  such  stations  be  pur- 
chased by  the  government,  tested  by  the  govern- 
ment, and  be  of  a uniform  quality. 

c.  That  such  spirits  be  sold  at  a uniform  price, 
sufficient  to  cover  their  cost  and  the  cost  of  main- 
taining the  stations,  without  profit  to  the  govern- 
ment. 

d.  That  the  Internal  Revenue  Department 
employ  at  such  stations,  at  such  salary  as  may  be 
required  to  obtain  them,  one  or  more  reputable 
physicians  who  shall  have  the  authority  and  be 
under  the  duty  to  issue  without  charge  prescrip- 
tions to  anyone  who  may  call  at  the  stations  and 
whom  the  physicians  find  to  be  in  need  of  spirits 
or  intoxicants  for  medicinal  purposes. 


ENFORCEMENT  i8i 

e.  That  such  stations  shall  also  fill  all  pre- 
scriptions issued  by  physicians  duly  licensed. 

/.  That  any  physician  issuing  a prescription 
for  spirits  shall  immediately  file  a copy  of  it  with 
the  government  station,  so  that  the  latter  may  at 
all  times  have  a complete  record  of  prescriptions 
and  sales. 

g.  That  the  physicians  in  attendance  at  the 
government  stations  shall  have  authority,  after 
consultation  and  examination  of  the  patient,  to 
prescribe  a quantity  of  spirits  in  excess  of  that  now 
provided  by  law,  if  in  their  opinion  such  action  is 
necessary. 

h.  That  in  widely  scattered  rural  districts 
where  it  would  not  be  practicable  for  patients  to 
travel  long  distances  to  a central  station,  prac- 
titioners be  authorized  to  purchase  from  the  gov- 
ernment at  the  nearest  distributing  station  such 
spirits  as  they  shall  deem  necessary  for  the  needs 
of  their  patients,  and  shall  be  authorized  to  sell 
such  spirits  at  the  government  fixed  price,  and 
shall  be  strictly  accountable  to  the  government 
station  for  all  spirits  received  by  them. 

This  plan  is  hardly  in  accordance  with  the  state- 
ment of  the  medical  association  that  the  use  of 
alcohol  in  therapeutics  has  no  scientific  value.  But, 
once  the  Volstead  Act  has  been  amended  and  the 


1 82  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


people  have  become  accustomed  to  obtaining  their 
whisky  through  the  medical  practitioner,  there  is  no 
reason  why  the  association  should  not  bring  their 
position  on  alcohol  up  to  date.  A little  thing  like 
consistency  need  not  trouble  them. 

Whether  any  such  plan  will  be  put  into  effect  is 
more  than  doubtful.  But  there  is  no  doubt  whatever 
about  the  effect  upon  the  public  of  certain  features  of 
the  enforcement  measures.  Police  officers  have  been 
ordered  by  their  superiors  to  defy  the  law  in  order 
to  enforce  it — a curious  paradox  in  the  world’s 
greatest  democracy.  The  constitutional  rights  of 
citizens  have  been  wilfully  and  flagrantly  violated. 
Their  homes  have  been  invaded  without  warrants; 
their  baggage  has  been  seized  and  examined;  they 
have  been  compelled  to  submit  to  offensive  and  de- 
grading personal  search.  And  all  this  without  a 
shadow  of  legal  justification.  But  public  opinion 
is  beginning  to  make  itself  felt,  and  both  federal  and 
local  authorities  are  responding.  District  attorneys, 
mayors  and  magistrates  have  in  many  instances  done 
their  clear  duty  and  insisted  that  the  law  shall  be 
decently  observed  by  its  paid  defenders.  Yet  the 
real  evil  lies  not  in  details,  but  at  the  very  root  of  the 
whole  matter.  It  is  inherent  in  the  Eighteenth 
Amendment  itself, — a deliberate  attempt  under  a 
constitutional  mask  to  deprive  the  people  of  a nat- 
ural and  therefore  undoubtedly  constitutional  right. 


ENFORCEMENT 


183 

After  such  a fundamental  act  of  violence,  political 
and  legal  rights  must  Inevitably  fall  by  the  way.  As 
United  States  Senator  Borah  said  in  August,  192 1 : 
■‘It  has  become  almost  impossible  in  certain  cases  to 
enforce  the  law  without  disregarding  the  Constitu- 
tion.” The  “certain  cases”  may  be  extended  to  all 
cases,  for  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  If  not  the 
letter,  has  been  violated  by  the  amendment  so  un- 
scrupulously foisted  upon  It.  Senator  Brandegee 
said  on  the  same  occasion:  “If  this  law  cannot  be 
enforced  except  by  Russian  and  inquisitorial  prac- 
tices, it  Is  not  a law  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  peoples.” 

The  American  people  will  cordially  endorse  this 
statement  of  a self-evident  truth. 

In  the  proceedings  in  the  Senate  with  regard  to  the 
Willis-Campbell  Bill  (the  Anti-Beer-Prescription 
Bill),  during  which  the  statements  just  quoted  were 
made,  an  amendment  was  introduced  (the  Stanley 
Amendment)  making  it  a felony  for  any  govern- 
ment officer  or  agent,  state  or  federal,  or  any  other 
person,  to  search  the  persons  or  houses  of  the  people 
without  a warrant.  Heavy  penalties  were  provided 
for  a violation  of  the  clause.  The  Senate  accepted 
the  amendment.  That  may  be  regarded  either  as  a 
simple  or  an  extraordinary  thing.  In  reality  it  is 
both.  It  is  certainly  a thing  of  the  utmost  and  most 
obvious  simplicity  for  a branch  of  the  federal  legisla- 
ture to  safeguard  the  guaranteed  constitutional 


1 84  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

rights  of  citizens.  But  it  is  an  extraordinary  thing 
that  the  wanton  and  contemptuous  violation  of  the 
Fourth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  by  the  zeal- 
ous partisans  of  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  should 
require  a new  clause  in  a new  statute  if  it  is  to  be 
coped  with  effectually.  Affairs  have  come  to  a 
strange  pass  indeed  when  the  machinery  of  govern- 
ment has  to  be  restrained  in  this  way  from  selecting 
which  part  of  the  Constitution  it  will  enforce  at  any 
cost  and  by  any  means,  and  which  part  it  will  ignore. 

Press  comment  throughout  the  country  showed  a 
full  appreciation  of  the  gravity  and  yet  grotesqueness 
of  the  issue.  The  New  York  World  for  August  1 1, 
1921,  said  in  its  leader: 

“What  the  Senate  did  was  merely  to  revive  in 
this  connection  the  Fourth  Federal  Amendment, 
binding  upon  Congress  and  all  officials  of  the 
national  government,  which  reads : 

“The  right  of  the  people  to  be  secure  in  their 
persons,  houses,  papers  and  effects,  against  un- 
reasonable searches  and  seizures,  shall  not  be 
violated,  and  no  warrants  shall  issue  but  upon 
probable  cause,  supported  by  oath  or  affirma- 
tion, and  particularly  describing  the  place  to  be 
searched,  and  the  persons  and  things  to  be 
seized. 

“This  article  of  the  American  Bill  of  Rights  has 
been  a part  of  the  Constitution  since  1791-  E 


ENFORCEMENT 


185 

was  English  law  going  back  to  a time  before  the 
American  Revolution,  It  was  not  superseded  or 
nullified  by  the  Eighteenth  Amendment,  which 
seems  to  be  the  only  part  of  the  Constitution  com- 
manding Mr.  Volstead’s  recognition  and  respect,” 

Mr.  Volstead,  characteristically,  had  expressed 
himself  as  being  grieved  at  the  new  clause,  which, 
if  kept  in  the  bill,  would  be  “a  big  blow  to  prohi- 
bition enforcement.”  He  was  not  grieved  at  all  by 
any  blows,  however  shattering,  at  the  enforcement  of 
the  Constitution,  which  naturally  seems  to  him  a little 
thing  in  comparison  with  his  own  peculiar  affairs. 
Perhaps,  remembering  that  George  Washington  was 
called  the  Father  of  his  Country,  Mr.  Volstead  may 
desire  to  win  the  title  of  stepfather  of  a changeling. 

The  New  York  Tribune  said  editorially  on  the 
same  subject: 

“We  are  too  close,  perhaps,  to  what  has  been 
going  on  among  us  for  the  last  eight  years  or  so 
for  the  masses  of  the  people  to  assess  the  enormity 
of  the  violations  by  public  servants  of  the  guaranty 
contained  in  the  Fourth  Amendment. 

“When  historians  of  this  age  of  ‘The  New  Free- 
dom’ come  to  cast  up  the  record  they  will  have 
occasion  to  marvel  that  a people  for  whom  free- 
dom was  purchased  at  such  a cost  should  have 
drifted  so  far  from  their  moorings  as  to  be  com- 


,i86  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


pelled  in  the  month  of  August,  1921,  to  reassert 
by  statute  the  right  of  personal  liberty  as  guar- 
anteed in  their  Constitution.” 

All  this  is  merely  one  of  the  first  fruits  of  prohi- 
bition, which  is  a deliberate  attack  not  only  upon  our 
liberties,  but,  as  I have  endeavored  to  show  in  these 
pages,  on  the  very  foundations  of  our  lives. 


CHAPTER  XXII 


GOVERNMENT  BY  PROPAGANDA? 

There  was  a time,  within  the  memory  of  many  of 
us,  when  the  American  citizen  was  free  to  live  his 
own  life  and  seek  his  livelihood,  unfettered  by  con- 
tinual government  supervision.  The  administration 
of  public  affairs,  so  far  as  it  affected  the  individual 
directly,  was  limited  to  certain  necessary  undertak- 
ings clearly  defined  by  the  Constitution,  such  as  rais- 
ing the  national  revenues,  coining  money,  administer- 
ing justice,  maintaining  a postal  system  and  extending 
encouragement  to  the  useful  arts  and  sciences. 

The  extension  of  government  regulation  had  its 
beginning  in  the  supervision  of  the  business  of  our 
corporations.  With  the  multiplication  of  govern- 
ment bureaus  which  an  unwieldy  system  of  taxation 
and  other  vicious  measures  have  encouraged,  a great 
network  of  surveillance  has  gradually  been  woven 
round  our  people,  until  it  has  now  touched  even  the 
home  life  of  the  nation.  The  government  bureau, 
instead  of  functioning  for  the  common  good,  has 
I fallen  into  the  hands  of  special  interests,  which  have 
I used  it  to  further  their  own  ends.  So  far,  these 
(interests  have  been  able  to  hold  themselves  beyond 

187 


1 88  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


the  reach  of  the  law.  But  prohibition  has  only  been 
made  possible  through  a gradual  breaking  down  of 
our  system  of  government.  The  adoption  of  the 
Eighteenth  Amendment  has  now  brought  to  the 
people  a clear  realization  that  their  liberties  are 
threatened.  Whatever  the  outcome  of  the  liquor 
controversy,  they  will  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
the  evils  which  have  prepared  the  way  for  prohibition 
must  be  rooted  out. 

Our  system  of  government  is  supposed  to  be 
founded  upon  popular  representation  by  geograph- 
ical division.  When  the  Constitution  was  adopted  it 
was  contemplated  that  the  people  of  the  several 
states  should  be  free  to  choose  their  own  representa- 
tives. Upon  questions  of  great  national  importance 
states  might  become  grouped  on  one  side  or  the  other 
through  the  mutual  sympathies  of  their  peoples,  and 
thus  the  feelings  and  opinions  of  the  inhabitants  of 
one  state  might  influence  the  inhabitants  of  another. 
But  that  is  not  the  case  to-day.  There  are  great 
organizations,  sometimes  nation-wide  in  their  activi- 
ties and  at  other  times  operating  in  more  or  less 
important  sections  of  the  country,  throwing  their 
influence  to  suit  their  interest,  first  in  one  state,  then 
in  another,  and  defying  the  sovereignty  of  the  people 
of  those  states.  It  may  be  a union  of  the  employees 
of  a transcontinental  railroad,  whose  influence  may 
be  felt  in  any  one  of  a chain  of  states  extending  from 


GOVERNMENT  BY  PROPAGANDA?  189 

the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific ; or  a miners’  union,  organ- 
ized throughout  the  coalfields  of  Ohio,  Pennsylvania 
and  West  Virginia;  or  the  Anti-Saloon  League,  an 
organization  drawing  its  members  from  all  parts  of 
the  country  and  leagued  with  many  subsidiary  organ- 
izations. These  unions  or  societies  are  organiza- 
tions of  private  citizens,  with  no  lawful  political 
standing  but  with  great  political  Influence.  The 
smaller  the  state  in  which  they  are  operating  the 
more  this  influence  is  felt.  The  states  of  the  Union 
vary  in  population  from  Nevada,  with  about  120,- 
000  people,  to  New  York,  with  over  10,000,000. 
Yet  all  states  are  on  an  equal  footing  when  acting 
upon  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution.  That  is  a 
fact  with  which  everybody  is  quite  familiar,  but 
everybody  may  not  appreciate  its  significance. 

In  putting  through  the  Eighteenth  Amendment, 
th^Wnfl^Saloon  League  had  the  support  and  co- 
operation  of  the  National  Health  bureaus,  and 
these  in  turn  were  controlled  by  the  medical  union, 
an  international  organization.  Thus,  through  secret 
combinations,  even  foreign  Influences  were  brought 
to  bear  In  the  making  of  our  laws.  This  was  ac- 
complished by  the  dissemination  of  propaganda,  in 
the  preparation  of  which  the  government  bureaus 
participated.  The  Congress  was  Intended  to  be  a 
deliberating  body.  Are  we  to  substitute  govern- 
ment by  propaganda  for  our  original  systeni? 


190  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

The  success  of  the  prohibition  movement  has  em- 
boldened the  propagandists.  Other  attacks  upon 
our  liberties  have  begun.  It  is  not  a case  simply  of 
an  anti-tobacco  crusade  or  some  similar  movement. 
There  will  be  plenty  of  those.  But  our  religious 
liberties  themselves  are  to  be  assailed.  The  same 
methods  are  to  be  employed,  according  to  a state- 
ment by  one  of  the  agitators: 

“We  shall  work  In  every  congressional  district 
In  every  state.  We  shall  agitate  and  spread  prop- 
aganda, and  cause  voters  to  write  unceasingly  to 
their  Representative  In  Congress,  until  no  Con- 
gressman who  cares  to  stay  in  Congress  will  refuse 
to  vote  for  our  measures.  These  were  the 
methods  used  by  the  Anti-Saloon  League,  and  they 
were  effective.” 

It  is  high  time  these  irresponsible  organizations 
were  brought  within  the  control  of  the  law.  The 
proverb  of  the  wolf  in  sheep’s  clothing  Is  as  full  of 
meaning  for  us  to-day  at  it  was  In  the  time  of  ^Lsop. 
We  must  recognize  the  fact  that  an  undertaking 
which  Is  begun  In  all  sincerity  may  fall  Into  the  hands 
of  the  unscrupulous,  and  that  high  pretensions  may 
be  only  a camouflage  for  sordid  motives.  If  a move- 
ment Is  for  the  good  of  the  people  It  will  do  no  harm 
to  know  all  about  it  in  the  beginning.  If  these 
organizations  were  required  to  Incorporate  and  to 


GOVERNMENT  BY  PROPAGANDA?  19 1 

keep  an  accurate  list  of  their  members  and  contrib- 
utors, and  the  amounts  contributed,  the  press  of  the 
country  could  be  relied  upon  to  do  the  rest.  If  it 
failed  and  harm  should  come,  we  should  at  least 
know  whom  to  hold  accountable.  We  should  not  be 
obliged  to  add  to  the  burdens  of  the  taxpayers  in 
seeking  out  the  names  of  the  supporters  of  an  illegal 
undertaking,  as  in  the  case  of  the  parlor  bolshevists. 
Prohibition  has  already  done  more  harm  in  this 
country  than  bolshevism  ever  could  do.  There  may 
come  a time  when  we  shall  be  seeking  the  names  of 
our  parlor  prohibitionists. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 


THE  WAY  OUT 

Prohibition  has  been  adopted  as  a part  of  the 
fundamental  law  of  the  land.  Every  safeguard 
which  the  ingenuity  of  legal  minds  could  devise  has 
been  placed  around  it.  When  we  consider  that  it 
will  be  necessary  to  obtain  the  consent  of  the  legisla- 
tures (or  conventions)  of  three-fourths  of  the 
several  states  to  undo  what  has  been  done,  and  that 
these  bodies  will  be  watched  and  influenced  by  the 
Anti-Saloon  League,  backed  by  a vast  army  of  old 
and  new  profiteers  and  their  political  allies,  the  repeal 
of  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  seems  all  but  impos- 
sible. Yet  in  spite  of  the  strength  of  its  legal  posi- 
tion, there  is  a weakness  in  the  very  foundation  of 
prohibition  which  it  has  been  impossible  to  rectify. 
Once  this  is  understood,  it  will  require  only  a well- 
placed  blow  to  bring  the  fabric  so  carefully  erected 
crumbling  down  about  the  heads  of  its  promoters. 
As  is  often  the  case,  when  the  little  minds  of  men  are 
pitted  against  the  purposes  of  nature,  a temporary 
success  has  been  seized  only  to  make  the  final  discom- 
fiture more  complete. 


192 


THE  WAY  OUT 


193 


The  whole  structure  of  prohibition  rests  upon  the 
premise  that  alcohol  is  harmful — a habit-forming 
drug,  a poison — and  this  conception  is  maintained  by 
the  government  medical  bureaus.  When  we  remove 
the  misguided,  inefficient  men  from  our  national 
health  departments  and  establish  an  honest  and  com- 
petent service,  that  service  will  tell  us  that  alcohol  Is 
necessary,  both  as  food  and  medicine,  to  sustain 
human  life.  The  Eighteenth  Amendment  will  then 
automatically  become  unconstitutional.  No  nation, 
especially  one  as  large  as  the  United  States,  can  lay 
down  hard  and  fast  rules  for  the  nourishment  of  Its 
people,  and  survive.  To  extend  governmental  reg- 
ulation to  the  foods  we  eat  (except  in  emergencies 
or  to  ensure  pure  products)  would  be  contrary  to  all 
American  principles  and  traditions.  And  not  only 
would  prohibition  come  to  Its  unregretted  end  with 
' the  establishment  of  a sound  national  health  service, 
but  the  way  would  be  cleared  for  the  eradication  of 
j disease,  here  and  throughout  the  world — tuber- 
culosis, influenza,  pneumonia  and  other  infections. 

' That  these  diseases  still  prevail  is  due  to  the  power 
I of  an  organization  which  so  far  has  been  able  to' 

f block  all  improvements  in  medical  treatment,  except 

|1 

those  which  it  could  control  and  so  turn  to  profes- 
I sional  profit.  Yet  this  organization  has  not  been 
content  with  the  disastrous  influence  it  already  exer- 
' cises.  As  Dr.  John  P.  Davin,  of  New  York,  says 


194  the  eighteenth  AMENDMENT 

in  a letter  to  the  New  York  World  of  August  ii, 
1921 ; “For  a long  time  the  medical  politicians  who 
control  the  American  Medical  Association  have 
aimed  at  a Cabinet  position  for  one  of  their  number 
in  a Federal  Department  of  Health.”  But  it  is 
natural  that  these  “medical  politicians”  should  aim 
at  a Cabinet  position  to  give  them  more  leverage  for 
their  destructive  efforts.  Not  long  ago  they  were 
trying  to  place  one  of  their  organization  in  the 
White  House  itself.  Fortunately,  the  White  House 
can  still  stand  for  progressiveness,  not  reaction. 

Compare  the  position  of  medicine  to-day  with  that 
of  other  sciences.  Note  some  of  the  great  achieve- 
ments of  mankind  in  other  fields  of  human  endeavor. 
Consider  only  the  most  recent  successes.  Man  is 
able  to  talk  over  a wire  from  New  York  to  San 
Francisco  and  recognize  his  friend’s  voice.  He  has 
crossed  the  broad  Atlantic  through  the  air  in  little 
more  than  a single  night.  He  has  harnessed  the  air 
waves  to  carry  the  messages  of  his  telegraph  and 
telephone.  He  has  preserved  sound  indestructibly 
on  little  discs,  so  that  the  great  masters  of  music  shall 
be  indeed  immortal  and  future  ages  shall  still  hear 
our  Carusos  and  Paderewskis.  Curative  medicine, 
on  the  other  hand,  in  spite  of  all  we  have  learned 
about  disease,  stands  almost  exactly  where  it  did  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  Have  you  been 
led  to  believe  otherwise,  as  the  result  of  successful 


THE  WAY  OUT 


195 

medical  propaganda  ? Then  hear  the  truth  from  the 
1 medical  text-books: 

“We  have  learned  to  prevent  many  diseases  by 
the  elimination  of  the  corresponding  infecting 
agents  from  our  midst;  cholera,  plague,  typhus 
fever,  typhoid  fever,  yellow  fever,  smallpox,  ma- 
laria and  diphtheria  are  diseases  which,  if  they  still 
exist  among  civilized  people,  do  so  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  people  in  the  face  of  a full  knowledge 
of  the  manner  of  their  prevention. 

“Wonderful  progress  has  also  been  made  in  sur- 
gery. By  its  means  countless  lives  have  been 
saved  which  otherwise  would  have  been  doomed. 
But,  after  all,  surgical  treatment  cannot  be  re- 
garded as  curative  treatment  in  the  proper  sense 
of  the  word;  the  surgeon  may  amputate  a badly 
crushed  limb  or  he  may  remove  a diseased  ap- 
pendix, or  a cancerous  breast,  but  he  does  not  cure 
the  limb,  nor  the  appendix,  nor  does  he  restore  the 
breast  to  its  original  condition.  The  final  repair, 
the  healing  of  the  wound,  is  accomplished  by  the 
animal  body  itself.  The  surgeon,  however,  is 
frequently  placed  in  a position  where  he  can  assist 
nature  materially  to  accomplish  a cure,  and  in 
this  respect  he  is  certainly  more  favorably  placed 
than  the  internist. 

“The  latter  may  be  a most  skilful  diagnostician, 


96  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

an  excellent  pathologist  perhaps,  but  he  does  not 
cure  the  diseases  with  which  he  is  brought  into 
contact.  He  may  in  a measure  influence  some 
diseases  by  his  directions  for  the  general  care  of 
the  patient,  but  as  a rule  the  patient  dies  or  re- 
covers irrespective  of  his  therapeutic  efforts,  in  so 
far  at  least  as  these  efforts  are  based  upon  ancient 
empiricism.  Typhoid  fever  patients  still  pursue 
the  same  course  which  was  so  well  described  by 
the  physicians  of  the  medlasval  ages;  our  pneu- 
monia death  rate  is  still  what  it  was  when  the 
earliest  records  on  the  subject  were  kept,  and  Is 
virtually  the  same  for  the  millionaire  in  his  marble 
palace,  surrounded  by  doctors  and  nurses,  as  for 
the  tramp  who  Is  cared  for  by  the  roadside  by  his 
brother  tramps.  The  ‘virulence’  of  an  epidemic 
of  scarlatina  or  measles  may  vary,  but  our  death 
rate  in  the  long  run  is  virtually  the  same.  Where 
actual  progress  has  been  made  in  the  treatment  of 
disease,  such  progress  has  been  due  not  to  our 
therapeutic  Interference  by  means  of  drugs,  but  to 
a recognition,  be  it  ever  so  slight,  of  those  factors 
by  which  nature  herself,  unaided  and  at  the  same 
time  unhampered  by  empirical  drug  treatment, 
seeks  to  accomplish  that  end.  For  after  all,  the 
very  thing  which  physicians  have  sought  to  ac- 
complish in  all  the  centuries  that  have  passed,  viz., 
the  cure  of  disease,  that  very  thing  nature  has 


THE  JVAY  OUT 


197 

accomplished  by  herself,  before  our  very  eyes., 
countless  millions  of  times. 

“Nature  herself  cures  75  per  cent,  of  the  pneu- 
monia cases,  while  the  physician  fails  to  cure  any, 
for  surely  he  cannot  claim  as  his  own  what  nature 
does,  and  he  evidently  loses  the  25  per  cent,  that 
nature  also  loses.”* 

Organized  Medicine  obtained  its  power  as  the 
result  of  the  high  pretensions  of  medical  ethics — “the 
services  it  can  render  to  humanity.”  Through  this 
plea  it  has  been  able  to  consolidate  the  most  powerful 
organization  of  modern  times;  an  organization 
which  would  not  be  permitted  to  exist  except  for  its 
avowed  purpose,  the  advancement  of  science  and  the 
welfare  of  the  human  race.  A British  courtf  has 
recently  swept  away  the  gloss  and  pretence  surround- 
ing medical  ethics,  and  they  stand  revealed  as  the 
private  rules  of  an  international  association  of  in- 
dividuals who  are  letting  themselves  for  hire — rules 
which  have  no  foundation,  in  this  country  at  least, 
in  national  laws  and  which  are  contrary  to  the  spirit 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

The  American  branch  of  this  association  is  organ- 

* “Infection  and  Immunity:  A Text-Book  of  Immunology 
and  Serology”;  Simon,  pp.  18,  19. 

t High  Court  of  Justice,  King’s  Bench  Division.  Pratt 
and  Others  vs.  The  British  Medical  Association  and  Others. 
(1919.)  I K.  B.  244. 


198  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

ized  along  the  same  lines  as  the  Workmen’s  and 
Soldiers’  Councils  of  Russia.  Their  governing  body 
consists  of  delegates  from  constituent  associations, 
scientific  sections,  and  medical  departments  of  the 
United  States  Government.  While  it  is  not  per- 
mitted to  the  employees  of  the  postal  service  to 
organize  and  send  their  delegates  to  the  meetings  of 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  the  Public 
Health  Service  and  other  medical  departments  of 
the  government  are  privileged  to  send  their  repre- 
sentatives to  the  House  of  Delegates  of  the  medical 
union  because  it  poses  as  a scientific  body. 

The  association  has  also  established  connections 
with  many  of  our  great  universities  through  their 
medical  colleges.  The  medical  college  is,  in  a 
measure,  independent  of  the  control  of  the  university 
trustees  and  subject  to  the  rules  of  the  medical  as- 
sociation. It  is,  nevertheless,  an  Integral  part  of  the 
university  and  as  such  is  entitled  to  all  the  prestige 
which  the  name  can  command. 

The  endorsement  and  assistance  which  the  associa- 
tion has  thus,  indirectly,  been  able  to  obtain  from  the 
government  and  the  universities  has  been  a great 
help  to  the  organization  in  spreading  its  propaganda 
among  the  people,  and  in  its  conflict  with  the  newer 
schools  of  medicine.  But  the  most  important  and 
sinister  exercise  of  its  power  has  been  in  the  use 
which  the  association  Las  made  of  the  university  and 


THE  WAY  OUT 


199 

other  institutions  to  control  the  course  of  medical 
progress. 

Medicine  is  not  a simple  science  where  progress 
can  be  made  along  a given  line.  It  embraces  many 
subservient  sciences  — anatomy,  physiology,  pa- 
thology, bacteriology,  chemistry,  serology,  etc. — one 
often  specially  dependent  upon  another.  The  very 
complexity  of  the  science  has  laid  it  open  to  bureau- 
cratic exploitation.  If  something  new  in  any  of  the 
subservient  sciences  was  discovered  which  appeared 
to  be  against  the  interests  of  the  association  or  which 
they  were  unable  to  control,  it  was  a simple  matter 
to  refer  it  to  one  of  the  government  bureaus,  which 
promptly  passed  it  on  to  a college  or  some  other  insti- 
tution, where  it  was  pigeonholed.  If  the  matter  was 
ever  called  to  public  attention,  the  mere  fact  that  the 
government  and  a great  university  had  had  the  op- 
portunity to  pass  upon  It  and  had  dropped  It  was 
sufficient  to  condemn  It  In  the  public  eye.  Perhaps 
the  reader  will  have  a better  understanding  of  the 
workings  of  the  system  If  it  Is  shown  in  operation. 

When  the  great  Influenza  pandemic  was  taking  its 
heavy  toll  from  our  population,  there  was  a general 
discussion  of  the  bacteriology  of  the  disease.  In- 
spired articles  on  the  value  of  an  Influenza  serum 
appeared  In  the  newspapers,  and  bills  were  Intro- 
duced Into  Congress  to  appropriate  a large  sum  for 
the  purpose  of  isolating  the  germ  which  was  causing 


200  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


the  havoc.  Long  before  the  infection  reached 
America  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  disease  had 
been  obtained  through  private  experiments  and  an 
effective  treatment  perfected.  These  experiments 
had  shown  that  serum  was  of  little  or  no  value  in  the 
treatment  of  this  type  of  infection.  Full  information 
was  laid  before  the  government  bureaus.  In  spite  of 
this,  the  authorities  went  ahead  with  their  plans  for 
the  production  of  a serum.  Although  it  was  entirely 
experimental,  the  serum  was  sold  in  large  quantities 
throughout  the  country.  After  a year’s  trial  it  was 
pronounced  worthless.  If  the  serum  had  been  a 
patent  medicine,  put  out  by  a pharmaceutical  house, 
its  promoters  would  have  been  called  to  account. 
But  it  was  a “scientific”  effort  and  the  unfortunates 
who  died  as  a result  of  using  a worthless  remedial 
agent  became  victims  to  the  advancement  of 
“science.”  As  for  the  other  treatment,  it  was  passed 
from  one  government  bureau  to  another.  It  finally 
brought  up  in  the  Influenza  Committee  of  the  Public 
Health  Service  and  was  by  them  referred  to  the 
Harvard  Medical  School.  That  was  the  last  heard 
of  It. 

An  American  chemist  discovered  a process  for  the 
Improvement  of  a well-known  drug.  This  chemical 
was  recognized  by  physicians  throughout  the  world 
as  a valuable  treatment  for  pneumonia.  Many  of 
the  drugs  of  the  pharmacopoeia  have  been  improved 


THE  WAY  OUT 


201 


and  refined  from  time  to  time.  In  this  particular 
case,  the  form  of  the  drug  most  used  in  America  was 
manufactured  under  a process  which  had  been  dis- 
covered in  a .German  laboratory.  The  American 
chemist’s  process  was  so  far  an  improvement  on  the 
German  that  injurious  constituents,  amounting  to  20 
per  cent,,  which  were  present  in  the  German  product, 
were  removed  without  detracting  from  the  thera- 
peutic value  of  the  finished  product.  The  drug  in 
its  refined  form  was  much  more  effective  in  its  com- 
binations with  other  chemicals  with  which  it  was 
usually  prescribed. 

The  chemist  took  his  product  to  the  American 
Medical  Association.  He  gave  his  formula.  The 
parent  drug  was  listed  in  the  United  States  Pharma- 
copoeia and  also  known  by  its  chemical  symbols.  To 
illustrate  we  will  call  it — 

Ae  (CDJ(NO)  X3  (YZ) 

The  process  removed  certain  poisons  represented 
by,  let  us  say,  NO.  The  chemist’s  formula  there- 
fore was- — 

Ae  B,  (CD,)  (NO)  X3  (YZ)  — (NO) 
or 

Ae  B3(CD,)  X3(YZ) 

This  did  not  satisfy  the  medical  association.  They 
demanded  to  know  how  the  poisons,  NO,  were 
extracted.  The  chemist  was  in  a quandary.  If  he 


202  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


made  his  process  public,  he  would  first  have  to  patent 
it  or  surrender  his  only  asset,  which  had  cost  him  a 
small  fortune  and  years  of  labor.  His  product 
would  then  become  a patent  medicine  and  subject  to 
the  virulent  attack  of  all  the  medical  journals  con- 
trolled by  the  association.  If  he  refused,  although 
every  chemical  molecule  in  the  refined  drug  was 
known,  it  became  a secret  medicine  condemned  by  the 
ethics  of  the  profession.  After  a protracted  corre- 
spondence the  process  was  refused.  The  association 
then  published  in  its  Journal  a report  condemning  the 
product,  and  this  was  mailed  to  every  one  of  its 
members. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  provides 
(Article  I,  Section  8)  — 

“The  Congress  shall  have  power — 

“To  promote  the  progress  of  science  and  useful 
arts,  by  securing  for  limited  times  to  authors  and 
inventors  the  exclusive  right  to  their  respective 
writings  and  discoveries.” 

So  far  as  this  concerns  medicine,  it  has  been  made 
a mockery  of  by  the  medical  union,  as  have  also  the 
pure  food  laws. 

But  the  chemist  was  not  to  be  baffled.  He  had 
influential  friends  and  he  proceeded  to  introduce  his 
product.  The  value  of  his  discovery  was  confirmed 
by  the  splendid  results  obtained  by  independent  physi- 


THE  WAY  OUT 


203 

cians  in  their  daily  practice.  When  the  United 
States  entered  the  war,  the  new  drug  was  offered  to 
the  government,  not  as  so  many  profiteers  were 
offering  their  wares,  but  at  cost.  But  the  govern- 
ment bureaucrats  had  been  warned,  and  they  refused 
the  offer.  The  chemist  persisted.  It  was  politely 
suggested  that  he  take  the  matter  up  with  the  Rocke- 
feller Institute.  This  he  did,  but  it  availed  nothing. 
His  experience  at  the  institute  would  fill  a chapter  in 
itself.  As  a last  resort,  he  determined  to  try  what 
political  influence  would  do.  Two  men,  high  in 
government  circles,  were  approached,  and  they  con- 
sented to  help.  Then,  and  only  then,  did  the  govern- 
ment bureaus  become  interested.  They  saw  that 
they  had  a determined  man  to  deal  with,  and  they 
finally  agreed  to  take  the  matter  under  advisement. 
The  chemist  was  directed  to  send  his  product  to  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, to  be  tested.  There  a worthless  test  and  a 
worthless  report  were  made,  and  that  ended  the  mat- 
ter. It  was  a coincidence  that  the  chemist  had  grad- 
uated years  before  from  the  same  university’s  Col- 
lege of  Pharmacy. 

Is  it  plain  now  how  this  system  works?  Any 
matter  which  might  cause  the  association  concern  or 
make  trouble  for  its  agents  in  the  government  bu- 
reaus can  always  be  disposed  of  by  referring  it  to  a 
reputable  institution.  And  if  someone  in  that  insti- 


204  the  eighteenth  AMENDMENT 

tutlon  Is  “careless”  or  “inattentive  to  his  duties”  and 
makes  a blunder,  it  In  no  way  reflects  on  the  officer 
of  the  government  or  his  association. 

Do  you  think  the  mother  in  far  off  Kansas,  when 
she  received  the  War  Department’s  telegram  that 
her  boy  was  down  with  pneumonia  in  a Texas  camp, 
cared  whether  the  medicine  they  were  giving  him 
was  manufactured  under  a German  patent  or  an 
American  patent,  whether  it  was  ethical  or  unethical, 
as  long  as  it  was  the  best  that  science  could  produce? 
It  was  her  boy’s  life  she  wanted;  nothing  else  mat- 
tered to  her.  And  the  colonels  of  the  medical  corps, 
who  have  held  their  positions  because  they  were  will- 
ing to  do  their  union’s  bidding,  did  they  tell  that 
mother  that  everything  possible  was  being  done  for 
her  boy,  or  did  they  tell  her  the  truth,  that  no  matter 
how  her  son  fared,  union  rules  must  be  observed? 
The  Patent  Office  was  established  as  much  for  the 
benefit  of  our  people  as  for  the  protection  of  our 
authors  and  Inventors.  America  is  entitled  to  the 
best  efforts  of  all  her  citizens,  no  matter  who  they  are 
or  what  their  calling. 

We  have  often  cause  to  wonder  at  the  wisdom  of 
the  farseeing  statesmen  who  laid  the  foundations  of 
our  government.  It  is  our  good  fortune  that  w’e 
have.  In  addition  to  our  great  state  papers,  a volu- 
minous record  of  the  thoughts  of  these  illustrious 
men.  It  seems  as  if  almost  every  contingency  which 


THE  WAY  OUT 


205 


we  have  had  to  meet  in  recent  years  has  been  covered 
in  their  writings.  It  was  the  concentration  of  power 
in  the  federal  bureaus  which  made  prohibition  pos- 
sible. Thomas  Jefferson,  in  his  first  annual  message 
to  Congress,  warned  the  people  against  these  federal 
offices. 

“When  we  consider  that  this  government  is 
charged  with  the  external  and  mutual  relations 
only  of  these  states;  that  the  states  themselves 
have  principal  care  of  our  persons,  our  property, 
and  our  reputation,  constituting  the  great  field  of 
human  concerns;  we  may  well  doubt  whether  our 
organization  is  not  too  complicated,  too  expensive ; 
whether  offices  and  officers  have  not  been  multi- 
plied unnecessarily  and  sometimes  injuriously  to 
the  service  they  were  meant  to  promote.’’* 

At  any  rate,  if  we  must  have  officials  and  bureaus, 
let  us  take  good  care  that  they  are  as  efficient  as 
possible.  As  soon  as  we  have  a national  health 
service  that  is  concerned  wholly  with  the  interests  of 
the  public,  and  not  with  those  of  any  domineering 
professional  association,  the  first  great  step  in  the 
cause  of  constitutional  liberty  will  have  been  taken. 
For  prohibition  will  end. 

* Thomas  Jefferson.  First  Annual  Message,  December  8, 
1801. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 


CONCLUSION 

There  is  much  to  be  learned,  and  not  about 
alcohol  alone,  from  the  prohibition  controversy. 
Nothing  in  recent  years  has  brought  us  more  squarely 
face  to  face  with  our  shortcomings.  We  have  held 
our  form  of  government  high  among  the  democratic 
nations  of  the  earth;  yet  representative  government 
is  a failure  when  controlled  by  fanatical  ignorance. 
There  is  no  despotism  worse  than  that  of  an  ignorant 
democracy. 

The  prohibition  movement  found  us  destitute  of 
any  real  knowledge  of  alcohol.  It  found  us  ignorant 
or  careless,  in  far  too  many  instances,  on  the  subject 
of  natural  laws,  economics,  and  other  fundamentals. 
It  has  shown  us  so  ignorant  of  history,  even  that  of 
our  own  country,  that  we  have  been  unable  to  profit 
by  the  past  experience  of  former  generations  of 
Americans.  It  is  only  human  to  err,  but  the  success- 
ful man  is  the  one  who  profits  by  experience  and  does 
not  fall  into  the  same  mistake  a second  time.  This 

is  as  true  of  a nation  as  of  an  individual. 

206 


CONCLUSION 


207 


The  history  of  prohibition  goes  back  three  thou- 
sand years.  In  our  own  country  it  goes  back  almost 
three  hundred.  Early  American  records  show  that 
in  1663  the  Governor  of  Delaware  prohibited  distill- 
ing and  brewing  in  that  colony.  From  then  until 
now  prohibition  has  been  agitated  periodically  in  the 
United  States.  As  with  the  perpetual  motion 
machine  and  other  interesting  or  irritating  obses- 
sions, there  has  always  been  someone  ready  to  ex- 
ploit the  prohibition  fallacy  as  soon  as  the  public 
recovered  from  their  last  experience.  Some- 
times it  has  been  the  professional  reformer,  looking 
for  a little  easy  money;  at  others  the  visionary 
fanatic,  too  much  impressed  by  the  importance  of  his 
own  idea,  and  too  little  interested  in  America  to 
study  her  history.  The  usual  crowd-elements  have 
joined  the  movement,  attracted  by  its  presumed 
idealism,  or  the  opportunities  for  profit,  or  the  mere 
desire  to  be  associated  with  agitation  and  action. 

Many  of  our  most  distinguished  statesmen  have 
gone  on  record  against  this  class  of  legislation. 
Abraham  Lincoln’s  statement,  made  in  the  contro- 
versy of  1840,  is  one  of  the  notable  examples.  He 
said: 

“Prohibition  will  work  great  injury  to  the  cause 
of  temperance.  It  is  a species  of  intemperance 
within  itself,  for  it  goes  beyond  the  bounds  of 


208  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 


reason,  In  that  it  attempts  to  control  a man’s  ap- 
petite by  legislation  and  makes  a crime  out  of 
things  that  are  not  crimes.  A prohibition  law 
strikes  a blow  at  the  very  principles  on  which  our 
government  was  founded.”* 

There  is  a whole  volume  of  scientific  facts  con- 
densed Into  these  few  words. 

Between  1851  and  1855  a substantial  part  of  the 
United  States  adopted  prohibition — the  New  Eng- 
land States,  New  York  and  Delaware  or  the  Middle 
States,  and  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Iowa  and  Mich- 
igan of  the  Middle  West,  with  the  territory  of 
Nebraska.  These  states  contained  about  forty-eight 
per  cent,  of  the  population  of  the  entire  country.  We 
need  no  stronger  proof  of  the  failure  of  prohibition 
as  a temperance  measure  than  the  history  of  that 
period. 

Before  this  time,  from  1817  to  1850,  there  had 
been  no  tax  on  alcoholic  liquors.  Good  whisky  sold 
at  wholesale  at  twenty-five  cents  a gallon.  It  was  on 
sale  in  the  groceries  and  other  stores  throughout  the 
country.  The  whisky  barrel  on  tap  with  the  tin  cup 
hanging  beside  it  was  a familiar  sight  in  the  country 
store.  Under  such  conditions  temperance  Is  a virtue. 
And  the  American  people  made  It  so,  for  during  the 

* Congressional  Record,  Sixty-third  Congress,  Third  Ses- 
sion, p.  629. 


CONCLUSION 


209 

system  of  free  whisky  the  per  capita  consumption  was 
gradually  decreased. 

A great  change  came  with  prohibition.  In  1850 
our  population  numbered  23,191,876  and  the  total 
consumption  of  spirits  was  51,833,473  gallons.  In 
i860  the  population  had  increased  36  per  cent,  to 
31,443,321,  while  the  total  consumption  of  spirits, 
in  spite  of  the  prohibition  enactments,  increased  73 
per  cent,  to  89,968,651  gallons.  During  this  period 
the  consumption  of  wines  also  increased,  while  that 
of  malt  liquors  was  more  than  doubled. 

The  failure  of  prohibition  in  the  ’fifties  has  been 
attributed  by  the  prohibitionists  to  lack  of  legal 
means  of  enforcement,  and  they  have  used  it  as  an 
argument  for  constitutional  prohibition.  To  prove 
the  possibility  of  total  abstinence  they  point  to  the 
Mohammedans,  also  to  the  North  American  Indians 
who  had  never  used  alcohol  until  the  white  man 
brought  his  firewater  to  this  continent.  They  cite 
these  cases  as  examples  of  peoples  that  have  existed 
for  generations  without  alcohol.  The  fact  that  a 
people  have  never  used  alcoholic  liquor  or  have  been 
able  to  give  it  up  is  not  an  argument  for  prohibi- 
tion. Let  us  look  below  the  surface.  Compare 
the  industries  of  these  people  with  our  own  great 
industrial  development.  Where  were  the  brass  fac- 
tories in  Connecticut  before  the  coming  of  the  Eng- 
lish? How  do  the  manufactures  of  Mohammedan 


210  THE  EIGHTEENTH  AMENDMENT 

countries  compare  with  those  of  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica? How  does  the  business  life  of  some  of  the 
Asiatic  nations  contrast  with  ours?  The  telegraph, 
the  telephone,  the  typewriter,  the  adding  machine 
and  all  the  other  labor-saving  devices  have  been 
invented  to  simplify  our  business  methods,  but  they 
have  not  lessened  the  burdens  of  our  industrial  work- 
ers. We  have  simply  taken  advantage  of  every 
time-saving  invention  to  multiply  our  activities.  Our 
corporations  are  larger,  our  enterprises  greater  and 
our  fortunes  more  colossal.  It  is  the  life  we  are 
leading  that  has  made  prohibition  impossible  in 
America.  If  the  nation  really  wants  prohibition 
there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  have  it,  if  it  is 
ready  to  pay  the  price  and  suffer  the  penalties  * — 
and  providing  we  are  willing  to  adopt  the  standard 

* Many  of  the  plagues  that  have  swept  over  the  earth  had 
their  origin  and  acquired  their  virulence  among  the  prohi- 
bition peoples  of  Asia,  who  have  suffered  far  more  from 
disease  than  the  Western  nations.  Of  course,  other  condi- 
tions must  be  considered,  besides  prohibition;  but  the  facts 
are  instructive.  In  spite  of  their  leisurely,  easy-going  exist- 
ence, the  average  span  of  life  among  the  inhabitants  of  India 
and  China  is  only  about  half  our  own.  Compared  with  the 
Western  nation’s  average  of  from  thirty-six  to  fifty-six  years, 
we  find  an  average  lifetime  in  India  of  from  nineteen  to 
tw’enty-one  years,  and  from  twenty-two  to  twenty-five  years 
in  China.  To  illustrate  their  weakness  when  attacked  by 
disease:  in  some  prohibition  countries  the  mortality  from 
influenza  during  the  great  pandemic  was  over  five  times  the 
American  death  rate. 


CONCLUSION 


21 1 


of  living  of 'a  prohibition  people.  But  let  us  look 
squarely  at  our  problem,  with  a full  realization  of 
what  real  prohibition  will  mean;  for  it  is  impossible 
to  change  a nation’s  whole  mode  of  existence  by 
the  passage  of  one  prohibitory  law. 

There  is  no  virtue  in  any  controversy  unless  we 
seek  the  truth.  And  to  this  end,  if  we  wish  to  have 
a better  understanding  of  the  whole  subject  of  pro- 
hibition, we  must  first  have  a better  understanding 
6f  alcohol  itself — its  uses  and  abuses.  We  must 
discard  any  false  impressions  acquired  from  passing 
observation  of  the  drunkard  of  the  saloon  and  set 
ourselves  to  learning  the  body’s  natural  needs,  not 
in  the  seclusion  of  the  laboratory  but  in  the  every- 
day life  of  the  American  people. 


INDEX 


Adamson  Law,  165 
Alcohol  and  auto-intoxication, 
78  sqq. 

— and  efficiency,  67,  68 

— and  fatigue,  113  sqq.,  127 

— and  golf,  1 19  sqq. 

— and  grain  conservation,  136 
sqq. 

— and  immigration,  52 

— and  insanity,  63,  64,  65 

— and  longevity,  50,  51,  69 
sqq. 

— and  religion,  13  sqq. 

— and  suicide,  65,  66 

— as  a medicine,  104  sqq. 

— as  a restorative,  compared 
with  nature,  72,  73 

— as  a stimulant,  105,  113, 
117,  118 

— food  value  of,  15,  46,  47,  97 

sq9.>  133  . . 

— traffic,  mortality  statistics, 
75.  76 

Alcoholic  beverages,  importation 
statistics,  143,  144,  14S 
Alcoholism  in  New  York  and 
Brooklyn,  175,  176 
“Alcohol — Its  Relation  to  Hu- 
man Efficiency  and  Lon- 
gevity,” vii,  57,  58,  59,  60,  62, 
75,  137,  169  _ 

American  Federation  of  Labor, 

53,  134,  19?  . . 

American  Medical  Association, 

viii,  17,  18,  20,  22  sqq.,  37, 
38,  43,  44,  46,  47,  48,  49, 

54,  55,  59,  ”2,  124,  194, 
201,  202 

A.  M.  A.,  Committee  on  Legis- 
lation, 47 


A.  M.  A.,  House  of  Delegates, 
39,  198 

— Journal,  202 
— Resolution  condemning  al- 
cohol, 39,  46,  47,  58 
Anderson,  W.  H.,  57 
Antibodies,  35,  42,  43,  60,  109, 
no,  in 

Anti-Saloon  League,  56,  57,  154, 
173,  189,  192 

Appleton’s  Medical  Dictionary, 

32 

Arnold,  Dr.  Alma  C.,  31,  95 
Aronovitch,  Dr.,  114 
Arrests  for  alcoholism  in  New 
York,  175 

Aschaffenberg,  Dr.,  67 
Auto-intoxication,  78  sqq. 

Behring,  Dr.,  23,  25 
Bell,  Sir  Robert,  33 
Bellevue  Hospital,  176 
Bennett,  Arnold,  123 
Borah,  Senator,  183 
Bordet,  Dr.,  23 
Boston  Medical  and  Surgical 
Journal,  83 
Boyd,  Frank  L.,  177 
Brandegee,  Senator,  183 
Bremer  County  case,  163 
Brewers’  Board  of  Trade,  136 
British  Medical  Association,  197 
British  Munition  Workers’ 
Health  Committee,  127 
Bryan,  Wm.  J.,  57 
Bureau  of  Animal  Industry,  32 

Camp  Whitman,  32 
Cana,  14 

Canadian  Government,  34 


214 


INDEX 


Carrel,  Dr.  A.,  88 
Champagne,  effect  of,  6o,  6i 
Chemotherapy,  36  sqq. 

Cicero,  73 

Cider  making,  90,  91 
Cincinnati  City  Hospital,  33 
Cincinnati  Enquirer,  33 
Cleveland,  house  shortage  in, 

133,  134 

Cobb,  Irvin  S.,  170 
Columbia  University,  146 

College  of  Physicians 

and  Surgeons,  203 
Department  of  Physiol- 
ogy, 1 14 

Concentration  camps,  m,  128, 
129 

Congressional  Record,  208 
Council  of  National  Defence, 
Medical  Section,  in 
Currency  inflation,  141 

“Darwinism  and  Race  Prog- 
ress,” 64 

Davin,  Dr.  John  P.,  65,  193 
Declaration  of  Independence,  46 
“De  Senectute,”  73 
Devonport,  Lord,  127 
Diphtheria  antitoxin,  25 
Douglas,  Dr.,  23 

East  and  West,  contrasted,  209, 
210 

Ehrlich,  Prof.  Paul,  23,  35  sqq. 
Ehrlich’s  side-chain  theory,  35 
sqq.,  108 

Ethics,  medical  code  of,  23, 

Exchange  depreciation,  141,  142 

Farmers’  Bulletin,  32 
Fatigue  and  alcohol,  113  sqq. 

— and  disease,  123  sqq. 

— toxins,  114 

Federal  prohibition  director, 
Illinois,  48 
Fees,  medical,  40 
Fillinger,  Dr.,  60 
Fisher,  Prof.  Irving,  57 


Fisk,  Dr.  Eugene  L.,  vii,  viii,  13, 
58,  59,  60,  62,  65,  67,  73, 
75.  76,  78,  80,  136,  138,  169 
Foot  and  mouth  disease,  32,  34 
Fourteenth  Regiment,  N.  Y.  N. 
G.,  32 

Fourth  Amendment,  184,  185 
Gallipoli,  33 

Georgia  and  the  Anti-Saloon 
League,  56,  57 

Germicide,  practical,  36  sqq., 
108,  109 

Golf  and  alcohol,  119  sqq. 
Gompers,  Samuel,  134 
Grain  conservation  and  alcohol, 
136  sqq. 

“Greenback”  party,  140 

Hall,  Prof.,  W.  S.,  85 
Hare,  Dr.,  106 
Harvard  Medical  School,  200 
Hippocrates,  26 
Hobson,  R.  P.,  57,  147 
House  of  Commons,  33 
House  of  Representatives,  Ap- 
propriations Committee,  17 
“Human  Machine  and  Industrial 
Efficiency,  The,”  124 
Hunter,  Arthur,  50 

Illinois,  federal  prohibition  di- 
rector in,  48 

“Immortality  of  the  Cells  and 
Tissues,”  89 

Imports  of  alcoholic  beverages, 

143,  144.  145 

Indiana  State  Penitentiary,  172 
Infantile  paralysis,  32 
Infection,  explanation  of,  42,  43 
“Infection  and  Immunity,”  197 
Influenza  Committee,  Public 
Health  Service,  200 
Influenza  epidemic,  iii,  112, 
126,  157,  158 

Insanity  and  alcohol,  63,  64,  65 
Internal  Revenue  Department, 
180 

Iowa  Supreme  Court,  163 
Israelites,  14,  15 


INDEX 


215 


Jacobi,  Dr.  Abram,  80 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  205 
Johnson,  “Pussyfoot,”  57 
Journal  of  A.  M.  A.,  202 
Journal  of  Experimental  Med- 
icine, 88 

Kings  County  Hospital,  176 

Labor  unionism,  159  sqq. 

Law  of  Moses,  13,  14,  15 
Lee,  Dr.,  114,  124 
Leslie’s  Weekly,  176 
Life  average  in  China,  210 
— in  India,  210 
Life  Extension  Institute,  59 

Hygiene  Reference  Board, 

59.  62 

Life  insurance  companies,  17,  18, 
49.  50.  62,  68,  75,  169 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  207 
Liquor  trade  mortality  statis- 
tics, 75,  76 
Loyster,  James  A.,  31 

Manchester  weavers,  44 
Mayo,  Dr.  Charles  H.,  39 
“Medical  Ethnology,”  81 
Medical  ethics,  23,  24 
Medical  fees,  40 
Medical  Record,  N.  Y.,  81,  89 
Medical  Section,  Council  of  Na- 
tional Defence,  in 
“Medical  Student’s  Manual  of 
Chemistry,”  61 
Metchnikoff,  Prof.,  23,  78 
Moran,  Wm.  H.,  171 
Mullan-Gage  Act,  147 
Munition  Workers’  Health  Com- 
mittee, British,  127 

Nain,  14 

Nation,  Carrie,  179 
National  Health  Service,  189, 
198 

Nature’s  process  of  fertility  re- 
newal, 72,  73 
Neo-Salvarsan,  37 
N.  Y.  Health  Department,  32,  33 


N.  Y.  Herald,  31 

N.  Y.  Life  Insurance  Co.,  50 

N.  Y.  Medical  Record,  81,  89 

N.  Y.  Tribune,  185 

N.  Y.  W arid,  33,  65,  184,  194 

Nutrition  Laboratory,  Boston,  67 

Occupational  hazards  (alco- 
hol), 75 

Paget,  Sir  James,  124 
Paratyphoid  fever,  32 
Pasteur,  Dr.,  22,  23 
Patent  medicines,  26,  27,  28,  37, 
.38 

Pfeiffer,  Dr.,  23 

Philippines,  alcohol  and  U.  S. 

troops,  81,  82 
Plumb  plan,  i6i,  165 
Police  court  statistics,  N.  Y. 
City,  175 

“Practical  Therapeutics,”  106 
Pratt  case,  197 

Prohibition  and  labor,  51,  52,  53, 

133.  134 

— cost  of,  147,  154 

— history  of,  in  U.  S.  A.,  173 
sqq.,  207,  208 

— in  the  South,  17,  56,  57 

— loss  of  revenue  through, 
146 

Proverbs  (quoted),  104 
Public  Health  Service,  189,  198 
Influenza  Committee,  200 

Reid,  G.  Archdall,  64 
Religion  and  alcohol,  13  sqq. 
Rockefeller  family,  18,  54 
— Institute,  54,  203 
— John  D.,  55 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  158 

St.  Elizabeth’s  Hospital,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.,  63 
Saleeby,  Dr.  C.  W.,  139,  140 
Salvarsan,  37 
Save-a-Life  League,  66 
Secret  Service  Bureau,  171 
Seligman,  Prof.  E.  R.  A.,  146 


2i6 


INDEX 


Senate  Finance  Committee,  146 
Serum  therapy,  23,  30  sqq. 
Shevlin,  Jas.  F.,  177 
Simon,  Dr.,  197 
Sing  Sing  prison,  172 
Society  for  the  Study  of  In- 
ebriety, 63 
Sorensen,  Dr.,  138 
Stamp  Act,  174 
Standard  Oil  Co.,  17,  54,  55 
Stanley  Amendment,  183 
Stedman’s  Medical  Dictionary, 
. .97 

Suicide  and  alcohol,  65,  66 
Supreme  Court,  Iowa,  163 
— U.  S.  A.,  n,  46,  47,  1 12, 
149 


Training  camps,  in,  128,  129 
“Triangle  of  Health,  The,”  31, 
95. 

Typhoid  fever,  32 


U.  S.  Army  Reports,  32 

Vaccination,  31,  32,  33 
Volstead  Act,  147,  171,  172,  178, 

179,  181 

— Committee,  57 
— Representative,  185 
Washington,  George,  185 
Weichardt,  Dr.,  114 
Weigert’s  law  of  regeneration, 
no 

Weinberg,  Dr.,  60 
Wheeler,  Wayne  B.,  57 
Whisky  treatment  in  influenza 
cases,  in,  112 
White,  Dr.  Wm.  A.,  63 
Willis-Campbell  Bill,  183 
Wilson,  Woodrow,  124,  125 
Witthaus,  Dr.,  61 
Women’s  Christian  Temperance 
Union,  27 

Woodruff,  Dr.  Chas.  E.,  80,  81 
Wright,  Dr.,  23 


' “• 


i 


^ ^ - I 


1 5 J'r  1 i -171  *71^  i’  - I ( ; 3 ’ * • ; • • , . > , . ■ ; j ‘ , .'• 


